California 

egional 

icility 


UB1HSY 

UNIV.  RilTY  OP 

CALIF:?-*!  * 
SAN  DIE 


NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 


DES 


IDEES  KAPOLEONIENNES, 


LE  PRINCE 


BRUSSELS: 
1839. 


TRANSLATED  BY 

JAMBS   A.    DORR 


NEW  YORK: 
D.  APPLETON  &  COMPANY, 

346  &  348  BROADWAY. 
1859. 


EHTEBED,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1859, 
BY  JAMES  A.  DOEE, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Southern  District  of 
New  York. 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE. 

WHATEVER  tends  to  throw  light  upon  the  character 
and  policy  of  that  remarkable  man,  who  now,  Emperor 
of  the  French,  wields  the  power  and  influence  of 
France,  and  holds  in  his  firm  hand  the  trembling 
balance  of  peace  and  war,  is  matter  of  public  im- 
portance. Not  only  have  the  learned,  whether  states- 
men, historians,  philosophers,  or  philanthropists,  mo- 
tives of:  reasonable  curiosity,  to  learn  all  that  can  be 
learnt  concerning  the  individual,  who  is  playing,  and 
apparently  is  destined  to  play,  the  leading  part  in  the 
great  world -drama  now  enacting;  but  every  one 
holding  property,  or  engaged  in  commercial,  in- 
dustrial, or  financial  enterprises,  whether  merchant, 
manufacturer,  contractor,  or  banker ;  every  one  using 
or  giving  credit ; — in  fine,  every  man  of  business,  who 
has  any  thing  to  gain  by  peace,  and  every  capital- 
ist, who  has  any  thing  to  lose  by  war,  has  a  personal 
interest  to  know  all  that  he  can  know,  concerning 
the  springs  of  action  which  move  and  guide  the  mind 
and  will  of  the  sovereign,  who,  at  the  head  of  the  cen- 
tral nation  of  the  civilized  world,  curbs  or  spurs  the 
military  enthusiasm  of  six  hundred  thousand  armed 
men,  backed  by  a  population  of  thirty-six  millions 


4  TBANSLATOE'S  PEEFACE. 

of  a  warlike  race, — fond  of  glory, — the  professed 
champions  of  an  advanced  civilisation. 

I  have  thought,  therefore,  that,  in  translating  into 
English  this  work,  which,  first  published  in  1839,  may 
be  regarded  as  presenting  the  policy  and  the  prom- 
ises of  Prince  Louis  Napoleon,  the  present  Emperor, 
then  thirty-one  years  of  age,  and  an  exile,  I  should 
render  a  service  not  only  to  literature,  but  to  practi- 
cal intelligence,  by  enabling  those  who  do  not  1-ead, 
or  may  not  possess,  or  have  access  to,  the  original,  to 
form  some  opinion  as  to  the  probable  course  of  polit- 
ical events,  so  far  as  they  may  depend  upon  the  will 
and  action  of  Napoleon  III.  He  writes  no  more 
books ;  he  is  aware  of  the  force  and  virtue  of  speech 
and  of  silence  ;  he  keeps  his  own  counsels,  and,  in  the 
words  of  Solomon,  we  may  say  of  him,  "  the  heart  of 
"  the  king  is  inscrutable."  But  what  he  has  written, 
he  has  written.  Those  who  read  what  he  has  written, 
will,  in  drawing  conclusions  as  to  the  action  of  the 
Emperor  from  the  words  of  the  exile,  each  according 
to  his  own  judgment,  make  allowances  for  the  changes 
which  time,  marriage,  paternity,  success,  and  perhaps 
a  better  and  more  practical  knowledge  of  the  affairs, 
duties,  responsibilities,  limits,  and  dangers  of  govern- 
ment may  have  wrought  in  the  mind  and  heart  of 
the  author.  It  is  not  improbable,  that  these  "  Napo- 
"  leonic  Ideas"  give  to  the  world  the  most  authentic 
indications  of  the  present  and  settled  purposes  and 
policy  of  the  leader  of  the  French ;  and  that  they  are 
overtures  and  true 

"  prologues  to  the  swelling  act 
"  Of  the  imperial  theme." 

Are  we  authorized  to  infer  from  the  ratification 
of  his  assumption  of  imperial  power  by  the  all 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE.  5 

but  unanimous  suffrages  of  the  French  people,  that 
they,  in  sanctioning  the  restoration  of  the  Napoleonic 
dynasty,  have  readopted  also  the  Napoleonic  regime  1 
If  it  be  so,  we  have  in  this  book  a  programme  of 
the  active  policy  and  living  aspirations  of  France. 

In  making  the  foregoing  remarks,  I  do  not  by  any 
means  wish  it  to  be  understood,  that  I  consider  the 
interest  which  attaches  itself  to  the  original  work 
limited  to  transient  circumstances,  and  to  the  present 
moment.  On  the  contrary,  many  of  the  ideas  are 
valuable  in  themselves  and  suggestive  of  others :  they 
form,  in  my  opinion,  an  important  contribution  to  the 
science  and  art  of  politics,  and  to  philosophy.  The 
book  might  very  properly  have  been  entitled  a  philo- 
sophical analysis  of  the  Consulate  and  the  Empire. 

Americans  should,  I  think,  more  than  others,  desire 
to  understand  the  foundation  of  that  theory,  which, 
planned  and  put  in  operation  by  Napoleon  L,  and  now 
continued  by  Napoleon  III.,  hopes  and  promises  to 
reconcile  in  France  personal  and  political  liberty,  and 
equality  before  the  law,  with  an  hereditary  throne. 
We  have  thought  that  an  elective  Chief  Magistracy 
affords  the  surest  guaranty  of  liberty  and  equality 
to  a  people  of  our  race,  situated  in  our  circumstances ; 
but  we  are  interested  to  study  and  to  understand  the 
modifications  which  these  leading  political  principles 
or  objects  of  the  age  undergo,  in  adapting  themselves 
to  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  various  races,  and  in 
combining  themselves  with  forms  of  social  organisa- 
tion and  of  government  different  from  those  which 
seem  to  suit  us,  though  they  may  not  be  suitable  to 
nations  of  different  blood,  and  in  a  different  state  of 
preparation.  The  same  sun  rises  and  sheds  the 


6  TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE. 

same  light  upon  the  whole  earth ;  but  it  discloses  to 
our  view  a  great  variety  of  scenery ;  in  one  place, 
the  beautiful  and  level  fields  of  fertility  and  content- 
ment, which  may  represent  a  Eepublic — in  another, 
the  magnificent  inequalities  of  a  mountainous  region, 
which  may  represent  an  Empire. 

ITiere  are  many  points  of  resemblance  between 
the  political  movements  of  France  and  of  America, 
during  the  past  seventy  or  eighty  years.  Both  are 
apparently  working  out,  each  independently,  a  solu- 
tion of  the  great  problems  of  the  times.  In  France, 
the  social  revolution  has  assumed  the  phase  which  may 
be  called  the  Napoleonic  policy ;  here,  it  has  taken  the 
form  which  we  call  the  American  system.  As  many 
of  the  questions  presented  in  both  cases  are  similar 
or  analogous,  it  is  probable  that  in  studying  the  French 
methods  we  shall  learn  many  things  useful  and  appli- 
cable to  ourselves.  If  Napoleon  had  been  born  here, 
he  probably  would  have  sincerely  adopted  the  Amer- 
ican system. 

It  is  proper  here  to  call  to  mind  that  Napoleon  IIL, 
in  becoming  Emperor  of  the  French,  has  not  forfeited 
his  title  to  be  considered  a  citizen  of  the  republic  of 
letters, — a  state  which  allows  and  knows  no  distinc- 
tion of  political  rank.  It  may  be  that,  aware  as  he 
is  of  the  mutability  of  fortune,  he  attaches  more  pros- 
pective importance  to  his  reputation  as  an  author,  than 
to  his  success  as  a  sovereign :  nor  would  such  a  pref- 
erence be  without  reason.  David  was  a  great  king, 
the  founder  of  a  dynasty  ;  but  his  chief  title  to  fame, 
apart  from  all  questions  of  inspiration,  rests  upon 
his  poetical  works.  His  wiser  son  was  a  greater 
prince,  who  consolidated  and  firmly  established  the 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE.  V 

royal  power  which  he  inherited ;  but  his  book  of  prov- 
erbs is  the  surest  and  the  still  living  proof  of  his  tra- 
ditional wisdom.  Is  it  necessary  for  me  to  cite  Caesar 
and  his  Commentaries  ?  or  to  allude  to  one  who  seem- 
ed to  prefer  the  Academic  uniform  to  the  Imperial 
robes?  Public  opinion  is  the  master  of  kings ;  and 
the  pen  which  forms  and  guides  public  opinion  is,  there- 
fore, more  powerful  than  the  royal  sword,  as  it  is 
more  glorious  than  the  jewelled  sceptre. 

The  publication  of  this  work  will  introduce  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States  a  citizen  of  the  republic 
of  letters ;  as  such  let  him  be  judged,  without  fear  and 
without  favor,  according  to  his  merits. 

For  obvious  reasons,  in  translating  this  work,  fidel- 
ity to  the  original  has  been  an  especial  duty :  it  has 
therefore  been  the  principal  aim.  The  original  metal 
has  been  recoined,  not  transmuted;  it  retains,  I 
trust,  the  genuine  ring. 

JAMES  A.  DORK. 

N«w  TOBK,  April,  1859. 


NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 


PREFACE. 


IF  the  destiny  which  my  birth  presaged 
had  not  been  changed  by  events,  I,  a  nephew 
of  the  Emperor,  should  have  been  one  of  the 
defenders  of  his  throne,  and  a  propagator  of 
his  ideas  ;  I  should  have  enjoyed  the  glory 
of  being  a  pillar  of  his  edifice,  or  of  dying  in 
one  of  the  squares  of  his  guard,  while  fighting 
for  France.  The  Emperor  is  no  more  !  but  his 
spirit  still  lives.  Prevented  from  defending  his 
shielding  power  with  arms,  I  can  at  least  at- 
tempt to  defend  his  memory  with  the  pen.  To 
enlighten  public  opinion  by  searching  out  the 
thought,  which  presided  over  his  high  concep- 
tions, to  recall  to  mind  his  vast  plans,  is  a  task 
which  yet  smiles  upon  my  heart,  and  consoles 
my  exile  !  Fear  of  offending  contrary  opinions 
will  not  restrain  me  :  ideas  which  are  under  the 


12  PREFACE. 

segis  of  the  greatest  genius  of  modern  times  may 
be  avowed  without  reserve ;  nor  do  they  need 
to  adapt  themselves  to  the  varying  caprices  of 
the  political  atmosphere.  Enemy  of  all  abso- 
lute theories,  and  of  all  moral  dependence,  I 
have  no  engagement  with  any  party,  any  sect, 
or  any  government.  My  voice  is  free, — as  my 
thought ;— and  I  love  freedom  ! 

CARLTON  TERRACE,  July,  1839. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER'  I. 
GOVERNMENTS  IN  GENERAL, 15 

General  movement  of  progress. — Forms  of  government. — 
Their  mission. 

CHAPTER  II. 
GENERAL  IDEAS, .        22 

Mission  of  the  Emperor. — Liberty  will  follow  the  same  path  as 
religion. — Re-establishment  of  the  monarchy  and  of  the  Catho- 
lic religion. — How  Napoleon  should  be  judged. 


CHAPTER  III. 

QUESTION  OF  THE  INTERIOR, 84 

General  tendency. — Principles  of  fusion,  equality,  order,  and 
justice. — Administrative  Organisation. — Judiciary  order. — 
Finances.— Charitable  institutions,  communes,  agriculture, 
manufactures,  commerce.— The  Army.—  Political  Organisa- 
tion.— Fundamental  principles. — Accusations  of  despotism. — 
Military  government. — Answers  to  these  accusations. 


14  CONTESTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  FOREIGN  QUESTION, 113 

Napoleonic  foreign  policy.— The  different  projects  of  the  Em- 
peror.— Benefits  conferred  npon  nations. — Italy,  Switzerland, 
•    Germany,  Westphalia,  Poland. — His  views  concerning  Spain. 

CHAPTER  V. 

AIM  OF  THE  EMPEROR, 136 

European  association. — Liberty  in  France. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

CAUSE  OF  THE  FALL  OP  THE  EMPEROR,        ?• ' ,  •        •      14*7 

CHAPTER  Vn. 
CONCLUSION,         . '  160 


CHAPTEE  I. 

CONCERNING  GOVERNMENTS  IN  GENERAL. 

General  movement  of  progress. — Forma  of  government. — Their 
mission. 

ALL  the  revolutions  which  have  agitated  the 
world,  all  the  efforts  of  great  men,  warriors,  or 
legislators,  are  they  destined  to  result  in  nothing  ? 
Do  we  move  constantly  in  a  closed  circle,  in  which 
light  succeeds  ignorance,  and  barbarism  civilisa- 
tion ?  Far  from  us  be  so  sad  a  thought ;  the  sa- 
cred fire  which  animates  us  ought  to  lead  to  a 
result  worthy  of  the  divine  power  which  inspires 
us.  The  improvement  of  society  marches  onward, 
in  spite  of  obstacles,  without  intermission ;  it  knows 
no  limits  but  those  of  the  earth. 

"  The  human  race,"  says  Pascal,  "  is  a  man  who 
never  dies,  and  always  advances  towards  perfection." 
Sublime  image  of  profound  truth!  The  human 


16  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

race  never  dies; — but  it  is  subject  to  all  the  mala- 
dies to  which  man  is  subject;  and  although  it  al- 
ways advances  towards  perfection,  it  is  not  exempt 
from  human  passions,  that  dangerous  but  indispen- 
sable arsenal,  which  furnishes  the  means  of  our  ele- 
vation or  of  our  ruin. 

This  comparison  involves  the  principles  upon 
which  the  life  of  nations  is  founded ;  that  life  which 
has  two  natures  and  two  instincts; — one  divine, 
which  tends  towards  perfection, — the  other  mortal, 
which  tends  towards  corruption. 

Society  then  enfolds  two  contrary  elements :  on 
the  one  hand,  immortality  and  progress ;  on  the 
other,  disease  and  dissolution. 

All  generations,  as  they  succeed  one  another, 
participate  in  the  same  elements. 

All  nations  have  something  in  common — the 
instinctive  desire  and  need  of  improvement.  Each 
nation  has  something  peculiar — the  special  disease 
which  paralyzes  its  efforts. 

Governments  have  been  established  to  aid  so- 
ciety to  overcome  the  obstacles  which  impede  its 
march.  Their  forms  have  been  varied  according 
to  the  maladies  they  have  been  called  to  cure,  ac- 
cording to  the  epoch,  and  according  to  the  charac- 
ter of  the  people  they  have  presided  over.  Their 
task  never  has  been  and  never  will  be  easy,  be- 
cause the  two  contrary  elements,  of  which  our  ex- 


GOVERNMENTS    IN  GENERAL.  17 

istence  and  the  nature  of  society  is  composed, 
demand  the  employment  of  different  means.  In 
view  of  our  divine  essence,  we  need,  for  our  prog- 
ress, only  liberty  and  work;  in  view  of  our  mor-- 
tal  nature,  we  need  for  our  direction  a  guide  and 
a  support. 

A  government  is  not,  then,  as  a  distinguished 
economist  has  said,  a  necessary  ulcer ;  it  is  rather 
the  beneficent  motive  power  of  all  social  organiza- , 
tion. 

When  the  panorama  of  history  is  unrolled  be- 
fore our  eyes,  we  find  there  always  these  two  great 
phenomena.  Upon  the  one  side  a  constant  system 
which  obeys  a  regular  progression,  which  advances 
and  never  retreats:  this  is  progress.  Upon  the 
other  side,  we  see  nothing  but  flexibility  and 
mutation:  these  belong  to  the  forms  of  govern- 
ment. 

Progress  never-  disappears,  but  it  is  often  dis- 
placed ;  it  goes  from  the  government  to  the  gov- 
erned. The  tendency  of  revolutions  is,  always,  to 
restore  progress  to  the  governors.  When  progress 
is  at  the  head  of  society,  it  marches  boldly  and 
swiftly,  for  it  guides ;  when  progress  is  confined 
to  the  governed,  it  marches  slowly,  for  it  must 
fight  its  way.  In  the  first  case,  the  people,  having 
faith,  allow  themselves  to  be  governed;  in  the 
second  case,  on  the  contrary,  the  people  wish  to 
do  every  thing  themselves. 


18  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

Ever  since  the  world  has  existed,  there  has 
been  progress.  To  be  assured  of  this,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  measure  the  road  of  civilisation ;  the 
track  is  marked  by  the  great  men  who  are  as  mile- 
stones, each  a  degree  higher  and  nearer  the  end 
than  the  preceding ;  and  we  go  from  Alexander  to 
Caesar,  from  Csesar  to  Constantine,  from  Constan- 
tine  to  Charlemagne,  from  Charlemagne  to  Na- 
poleon. 

Forms  of  government,  on  the  contrary,  do  not 
follow  constant  laws.  Republics  are  as  old  as  the 
world ;  the  elective  system  and  the  hereditary 
system  have  for  ages  disputed  the  possession  of 
power,  and  power  has  rested  by  turns  in  the 
hands  of  those  who  had  on  their  side  science 
or  intelligence,  right  or  strength.  Governments 
are  not  therefore  based  upon  invariable  forms: 
there  is  no  more  a  governmental  formula  for 
the  happiness  of  nations,  than  there  is  a  uni- 
versal panacea  for  the  cure  of  all  diseases.  *'  Eve- 
"  ry  question  of  political  forms,"  says  Carrel,  "  has 
"  its  data  in  the  state  of  society,  not  elsewhere." 
These  words  involve  a  great  truth.  In  politics, 
the  good  is  only  relative,  never  absolute. 

Admitting  the  ideas  which  precede,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  attach  high  importance  to  the  learned  dis- 
tinctions which  writers  have  made  between  the 
government  of  one  and  the  government  of  many, 
between  democratic  governments  and  aristocratic 


GOVERNMENTS    IN  GENERAL.  19 

governments.1  All  have  been  good,  for  they  have 
existed  and  continued  in  existence;  and  for  any 
given  people,  any  form  has  been  the  best  which 
has  continued  the  longest  time.  But,  a  priori,  the 
best  government  is  that  which  fulfils  well  its  mis- 
sion— that  is  to  say,  that  which  is  modelled  upon  the 
wants  of  the  epoch,  and  which  in  forming  itself 
upon,  and  adapting  itself  to,  the  present  state  of , 
society,  employs  the  necessary  means  to  open  a 
smooth  and  easy  road  for  advancing  civilisation. 

I  say  it  with  regret,  I  see  at  the  present  day  j 
only  two  governments  which  fulfil  well  their  provi- 1 
dential  mission;  these  are  the  two  Colossuses,  which  ' 
exist,  one  at  the  extremity  of  the  new,  the  other  at 
the  extremity  of  the  old  world.2    Whilst  our  old 

1  Far  be  from  me  the  idea  of  entering  into  a  discussion 
upon  the  comparative  merits  of  monarchies  and  republics ;  I 
leave  to  the  philosophers  and  the  metaphysicians  the  solution 
of  a  problem  which,  treated  a  priori,  I  consider  insoluble.  I 
see  in  monarchy  neither  the  principle  of  divine  right,  nor  all 
the  faults  and  defects  which  some  pretend  to  see.  I  see  in' 
the  hereditary  system  only  a  guaranty  of  the  integrity  of  a 
country.  In  order  to  appreciate  this  opinion,  it  is  sufficient  to 
recollect,  that  the  two  monarchies  of  France  and  of  Germany 
were  born  at  the  same  time, — at  the  partition  of  the  empire  of 
Charlemagne.  The  crown  became  wholly  elective  in  Germany 
— it  remained  hereditary  in  France.  Eight  hundred  years  after 
the  partition,  Germany  was  divided  into  about  twelve  hundred 
States — her  nationality  had  disappeared ;  while  in  France  the 
hereditary  principle  has  destroyed  all  the  petty  sovereigns,  and 
formed  a  great  and  compact  nation. 

*  I  do  not  mean  to  say  by  this  that  all  the  other  govern- 
ments of  Europe  are  bad ;  I  wish  to  say  only,  that  in  the  pres- 


20  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

European  centre  resembles  a  volcano,  which  con- 
sumes itself,  in  its  crater,  the  two  nations  of  the 
East  and  the  West  march  without  hesitation  on 
the  road  of  improvement ;  one  of  them  through  the 
will  of  one  man,  the  other  through  liberty. 

Providence  has  committed  to  the  United  States 
of  America  the  charge  of  peopling  and  of  subduing 
to  civilisation  all  that  immense  territory  which 
extends  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  ocean, 
and  from  the  North  pole  to  the  equator.  Their 
government,  which  is  a  simple  administration 
has  had,  up  to  the  present  time,  but  to  put  in 
practice  the  old  adage, — "  Laissez  faire,  laissez  pas- 
"  ser," — in  order  to  favor  that  irresistible  instinct, 
which  urges  the  population  of  the  United  States 
towards  the  West. 

In  Russin,  to  an  imperial  dynasty  is  due  ah1  the 
progress  which,  during  a  century  and  a  half,  has 
withdrawn  this  vast  empire  from  barbarism.  The 
imperial  power  must  contend  against  all  the  old 
prejudices  of  our  ancient  Europe;  it  must  central- 
ize, as  much  as  possible,  in  the  hands  of  a  single 
man,  all  the  forces  of  the  State,  in  order  to  de- 
stroy the  abuses  which  tend  to  perpetuate  them- 
selves under  the  protection  of  communal  and 
feudal  franchises.  The  East  can  receive  only  from 
him  the  ameliorations  which  it  expects  and  awaits. 

ent  day  no  other  government  is  on  a  level  with  its  great 
mission. 


GOYEBNMENTS  E*  GENEEAX.  21 

But  France !  France  of  Henry  IV.,  of  Louis! 
XIV.,  of  Carnot,  of  Napoleon — always  the.fountain 
of  progress  for  Western  Europe — possessing  the 
two  elements  of  empfre,  the  genius  of  the  peaceful 
arts,  and  the  genius  of  war ;  has  France  no  longer 
a  mission  to  fulfil  ?  Will  she  exhaust  her  resources 
and  her  energies  in  never-ending  internal  and  sui- 
cidal contests  ?  No !  such  cannot  be  the  destiny 
of  France !  Soon  will  arrive  the  day  when,  in 
order  to  reign  over  her,  it  will  be  understood  that 
her  part  is,  to  cast  into  the  scales  of  all  treaties 
her  sword  of  Brennus  on  the  side  of  civilisation ! 


CHAPTEE    II. 

GENEKAL   IDEAS. 

Mission  of  the  Emperor.— Liberty  will  follow  the  same  path  as  religion. 
— Be-establishment  of  the  monarchy  and  of  the  Catholic  religion. — 
How  Napoleon  should  be  judged. 

WHEN  ideas  which  have  governed  the  world 
dimng  long  periods  lose,  in  consequence  of  the 
necessary  transformation  of  society,  their  force  and 
their  empire,  new  ideas,  destined  to  replace  those 
which  preceded,  arise.  Although  they  bear  with- 
in themselves  a  re-organizing  germ,  they  proceed 
nevertheless  by  means  of  disorganization.  But,  so 
great  is  the  presumption  of  new-born  ideas,  and  so 
agreeable  to  our  ephemeral  existence  is  the  idea 
of  duration,  that,  as  they  pluck  the  stones  from  the 
old  edifice  and  build  upon  the  fallen  mass  anew, 
they  proclaim  the  ruins  to  be  a  new  and  inde- 
structible foundation;  until  successive  falls,  and 
successive  burials  of  that  which  preceded,  teach 
them  that  they  have  torn  down  and  not  built  up — 
that  their  work  requires  more  solid  materials,  in 


GENERAL  IDEAS.  23 

order  to  be  safe  from  the  crash  of  the  crumbling 
past. 

It  is  thus  that  the  ideas  of  1789  (ideas  which, 
after  having  overturned  Europe,  will  end  by  se- 
curing its  repose)  appeared,  already  in  1791,  to 
have  destroyed  the  old,  and  to  have  created  the 
new,  order  of  things.  But  the  birth  of  liberty  is 
slow  and  painful,  and  the  work  of  ages  cannot  bq 
destroyed  without  tremendous  shocks !  1793  fol- 
lowed hard  upon  1791 ;  and  the  world  witnessed 
ruin  after  ruin,  transformation  after  transformation, 
until  at  length  Napoleon  appeared,  cleared  up  the 
chaos  of  nothingness  and  of  glory,  separated  truths 
from  passions,  the  elements  of  success  from  tho 
seeds  of  death,  and  reduced  to  synthesis,  all  those 
great  principles,  which,  contending  together  un- 
ceasingly, compromised  the  cause  in  which  all  were 
interested. 

Napoleon,  arriving  upon  the  stage  of  the  world, 
saw  that  he  was  to  play  the  part  of  being  the  tes- 
tamentary executor  of  the  revolution.  The  de- 
structive conflagration  of  contending  parties  was 
extinct,  and  when  the  revolution,  dying,  but  not 
vanquished,  bequeathed  to  Napoleon  the  duty  of 
accomplishing  her  last  wishes,  she  said  to  him: 
"  Secure  upon  solid  foundations  the  principal  re- 
"  suits  of  my  efforts ;  reunite  the  French,  now  di- 
"vided;  repulse  feudal  Europe,  now  in  league 
"  against  me ;  heal  my  wounds;  spread  light  among 


24  NAPOLEOOTC  IDEAS. 

"  the  nations ;  complete  broadly  what  I  have  com- 
"  menced  deeply ;  be  for  Europe  what  I  have  been 
"  for  France ;  and — even  though  you  may  be  called 
"  upon  to  water  the  tree  of  civilisation  with  your 
"  blood,  to  see  your  plans  misunderstood  and  re- 
jected, and  those  who  are  dear  to  you  condemned 
"  to  wander  in  exile  over  the  earth — never  aban- 
"  don  the  sacred  cause  of  v  France,  but  make  it  tri- 
"umph  by  all  the  means  which  genius  invents, 
"  and  humanity  approves." 

This  great  mission  Napoleon  accomplished  to 
the  very  end.  The  task  was  difficult.  It  was 
necessary  to  found  upon  new  principles  a  society 
still  boiling  with  hatred  and  rancor,  and  to  make 
use,  for  consolidation,  of  the  same  instruments 
which,  until  then,  had  only  served  to  demolish. 

The  common  lot  of  every  new  risen  truth  is 
to  alarm  rather  than  persuade,  to  wound  rather 
than  convince.  This  is  because  it  projects  itself 
with  greater  force,  as  it  has  been  longer  restrained ; 
because,  having  obstacles  to  overcome,  it  must 
contend  and  overthrow,  until,  understood  and 
adopted  by  the  general  mass,  it  becomes  the  basis 
of  a  new  social  order. 

Liberty  and  the  Christian  religion  will  follow 
the  same  path.  Christianity,  armed  with  death 
against  the  old  Roman  form  of  society,  excited  for 
a  long  time  the  fear  and  the  hatred  of  nations ; 
then,  in  virtue  of  martyrdoms  and  persecution,  the 


GENERAL   IDEAS.  25 

religion  of  Christ  penetrated  into  the  depths  of 
minds  and  of  consciences ;  soon  she  had  at  her 
control  armies  and  kings  ;  Constantino  and  Charle- 
magne conducted  her  in  triumph  through  Europe. 
Then  religion  laid  aside  her  weapons  of  war,  unveil- 
ed to  all  eyes  her  principles  of  order  and  peace,  and 
became  the  organizing  element  of  society,  and  the 
support  of  power.  Thus  will  it  be  with  liberty : 
already  has  she  passed  through  some  of  the  same 
phases.  In  1793,  she  affrighted  peoples  as  well  as 
sovereigns ;  then,  having  assumed  more  gentle 
forms,  she  insinuated  herself  everywhere,  following 
our  battalions.  In  1815,  all  parties  adopted  her 
colors,  and  supporting  themselves  upon  her  moral 
force,  covered  themselves  with  her  flag.  The 
adoption  was  not  sincere,  and  liberty  was  obliged 
to  resume  her  weapons  of  war.  Fears  were  re- 
newed with  the  contest.  Let  us  hope  that  they 
will  soon  cease,  and  that  liberty  will  again  put  on  * 
her  festal  robes,  never  to  quit  them  more. 

The  Emperor  Napoleon  has  contributed  more 
than  any  other  "person  to  hasten  the  reign  of 
liberty,  by  preserving  the  moral  influence  of  the 
revolution,  and  diminishing  the  fears  which  it  in- 
spired.1 Without  the  Consulate  find  the  Empire, 

J  It  was  the  fear  which  the  French  revolution  roused  in 
the  minds  of  sovereigns,  that  arrested  the  reforms  and  the 
progress  which  had  been  commenced  before  1789,  by  Joseph 
II.  in  Austria,  and  by  Leopold  in  Italy. 
2 


26  NAPOLEOinC  IDEAS. 

the  revolution  would  have  been  merely  a  great 
drama,  leaving  grand  recollections,  but  few  practi- 
cal results.  The  revolution  would  have  been 
drowned  in  the  counter-revolution ;  but-  the  con- 
trary took  place,  because  Napoleon  planted  deep 
in  France,  and  introduced  everywhere  in  Europe, 
the  principal  benefits  resulting  from  the  grand 
crisis  of  1789,  and  because,  to  use  his  language,  "  he 
"  purified  the  revolution,  seated  firmly  kings,  and 
"  ennobled  the  people."  He  purified  the  revolution, 
by  separating  the  truths,  which  it  caused  to  tri- 
umph, from  the  passions,  which,  in  their  delirium, 
had  obscured  them ;  he  seated  firmly  kings,  by 
rendering  royal  power  respectable  and  honora- 
ble ;  he  ennobled  the  people,  by  giving  them  a 
consciousness  of  their  strength,  and  those  institu- 
itions  which  elevate  man  in  his  own  respect.  The 
Emperor  should  be  regarded  as  the  Messiah  of 
new  ideas  ;  for,  in  moments  which  immediately  fol- 
low a  social  dissolution,  the  essential  thing  is,  not 
to  put  into  application  principles  in  all  the  subtilty 
of  their  theory,  but  to  seize  the  regenerating 
spirit,  to  identify  one's  self  with  the  sentiments  of 
the  people,  and  guide  them  boldly  towards  the  end 
which  they  desire  to  reach.  To  be  capable  of  ac- 
complishing such  a  task,  it  is  necessary -that  "  your 
'•''fibre  should  respond  to  that  of  the  people,"  l  that 
you  feel  as  the  people  feel,  and  that  your  interests 

1  Words  of  the  Emperor. 


GENERAL   IDEAS.  27 

be  so  intermingled,  that  you  must  conquer  or  fall 
together ! 

-It  was  this  union  of  sentiment,  of  instinct,  and 
of  will,  which  created  the  power  of  the  Emperor. 
It  is  a  grave  error  to  think  that  a  great  man  is 
omnipotent,  and  that  he  derives  his  powers  only 
from  himself.  To  know  how  to  divine,  to  use 
wisely,  and  to  guide, — these  are  the  first  qualities 
of  a  superior  genius.  "  I  have  taken  care,"  said 
Napoleon,  "  not  to  fall  into  the  error  of  the  men 
"  of  modern  systems, — to  imagine  that  I  represent 
"  of  myself,  and  through  my  own  thoughts,  the 
"  wisdom  of  nations.  The  skill  of  the  workman 
"  consists  in  knowing  how  to  avail  himself  of  the 
"  materials  which  he  has  at  hand." 

One  of  the  first  necessities  of  a  government  is 
to  understand  well  the  state  of  the  country  which 
it  rules,  and  to  know  where  exist  the  elements  of 
strength  upon  which  it  can  rely.  The  ancient  mon- 
archy had  for  supports  the  nobility  and  the  clergy, 
because  at  that  time  the  two  principal  elements  of 
strength  resided  in  those  two  classes,  which  repre- 
sented landed  wealth  and  moral  influence.  The 
Revolution  had  destroyed  all  that  feudal  edifice  ; 
it  had  displaced  interests,  created  new  sources  of 
power  and  wealth,  and  given  birth  to  new  ideas. 

To  attempt  to  restore  the  ancient  regime,  to 
rely  upon  forces  which  no  longer  had  roots,  would 
have  been  folly.  The  Emperor,  while  re-estab- 


28  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

lishmg  ancient  forms  in  founding  his  authority,  re- 
lied only  upon  the  young  and  vigorous  sap  of  new 
interests.  He  re-established  the  clergy,  but  with- 
out making  them  a  means  of  government.  So  also 
the  transition  from  the  republic  to  a  monarchy, 
and  the  re-establishment  of  public  worship,  instead 
of  awakening  fears,  reassured  men's  minds ;  for, 
far  from  crossing  any  interest,  these  acts  satisfied 
political  and  moral  wants,  and  responded  to  the 
wishes  of  the  majority.  Indeed,  if  these  transfor- 
mations had  not  corresponded  with  the  sentiments 
and  ideas  of  the  majority,  Napoleon  would  not 
have  made  them ;  for  he  appreciated  correctly, 
and  he  desired  to  augment,  not  to  weaken,  his 
moral  power.  Thus,  never  before  were  so  great 
changes  accomplished  with  so  little  effort.  Napo- 
leon had  but  to  say,  "  Let  the  churches  be  open- 
"  ed,"  and  the  faithful  rushed  to  fill  them.  He 
asked  the  nation, — "  Do  you  wish  the  governing 
"power  to  be  hereditary?"  and  the  nation  an- 
swered affirmatively  by  four  millions  of  votes.1 

1  Some  persons  wish  to  raise  doubts  concerning  the  legiti- 
mate character  of  such  an  election.  But  they  attack  thus  all 
the  constitutions  of  the  republic  ;  for  those  constitutions  even 
did  not  obtain  so  complete  a  sanction. 

The  Constitution  of  1791  was  not  submitted  to  the  accept- 
ance of  the  people. 

Voters.          Accepting.     Kfifusing. 

Constitution  of  1793,  1,801,018         11,600 

"  "  year  8,  1,057,390         49,977 

"  "     "     8,  Consulate,  8,012,569  3,011,007  1,562 

Consulate  for  life,  8,577,259  8,568,888  8,874 

HureditaryEmpire,  1804,  8,524,254  8,521,675  2.579 


GENERAL   IDEAS.  29 

It  is  difficult  to  disengage  ourselves  entirely  from 
the  past ;  generations,  like  individuals,  are  con- 
trolled by  their  antecedents.  Our  sentiments  are 
for  the  most  part  only  traditions.  Slave  of  the 
recollections  of  his  infancy,  man  obeys  all  his  life, 
without  suspecting  it,  the  impressions  which  he  re- 
ceived in  his  early  days,  and  the  trials  and  influ- 
ences to  which  he  was  then  subjected.  The  life  of 
a  people  is  subject  to  the  same  general  laws.  A  sin- 
gle day  cannot  change  a  republic  of  500  years  into 
an  hereditary  monarchy,  or  convert  a  monarchy  of 
1,400  years  into  an  elective  repiiblic. 

Consider  Rome :  during  500  years  her  repub- 
lican forms  existed,  and  they  placed  her  at  the 
head  of  the  world.  During  500  years  the  elective 
system  produced  great  men,  and  the  dignity  of 
consul,  o£  senator,  of  tribune,  was  far  above  that  of 
the  thrones  of  kings,  whom  the  Romans  knew  only 
by  seeing  them  chained  to  the  triumphal  cars  of 
their  conquerors.  And,  although  Rome  could  no 
longer  maintain  those  institutions  which  had  en- 
dured for  ages,  and  which  had  created  her  gran- 
deur and  her  power,  she  preserved  nevertheless, 
for  600  years  more,  under  the  emperors,  the  vener- 
ated forms  of  the  republic.  So  the  French  repub- 
lic, which  succeeded  a  monarchy  of  1,400  years, 
under  which  France  had  become  great  and  glori- 
ous, in  virtue  of  the  sole  principle  of  monarchical 
centralisation,  in  spite  of  the  faults  and  errors  of 


30  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

her  kings ; — so  the  French  republic  not  only  soon  re- 
clothed  itself  with  the  ancient  forms,  but  from  its 
very  origin  it  preserved  the  distinctive  character 
of  the  monarchy,  by  proclaiming  and  strengthening 
by  every  means  that  centralisation  of  power  which 
had  been  the  vital  element  of  French  nationality. 

Let  us  add  to  these  considerations,  that  Napo- 
leon and  Cajsar,  who  found  themselves  in  analogous 
circumstances,  had  to  act  with  the  same  motives 
in  opposite  ways.  Both  of  them  wished  to  recon- 
struct with  ancient  forms  upon  new  principles.1  It 
belonged  to  Cffisar,  therefore,  to  preserve  republi- 
can forms ;  to  Napoleon  to  re-establish  the  forms 
of  monarchy. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury great  unanimity  was  felt  in  favor  of  render- 
ing the  power  of  the  Emperor  hereditary^  whether 
because  of  the  traditional  force  of  ancient  institu- 
tions, or  of  the  prestige  which  surrounds  man 
invested  with  authority,  or  of  the  "desire  for  an 

1  The  emperor,  in  his  Precis  des  Guerrcs  de  C6sar,  has 
clearly  proved,  that  Caesar  never  desired — never  could  desire 
— to  make  himself  king.  "  Cajsar,  Conqueror,"  said  Napoleon, 
"never  governed  but  as  consul,  dictator,  or  tribune;  he  con- 
"  firmed,  then,  rather  than  discredited,  the  ancient  forms  of 
"the  republic.  Augustus,  even,  a  long  time  after,  and  when 
"  whole  generations  of  republicans  had  been  swept  away  by 
"  proscriptions  and  the  war  of  the  triumvirs,  never  entertained 
"the  idea  of  erecting  a  throne.  It  would  have  been  on  the 
"  part  of  Caesar  a  strange  policy  to  replace  the  curule  chair  of 
"  the  conquerors  of  the  world  by  the  decajed  throne,  which 
"  even  the  vanquished  despised." 


GENERAL  IDEAS.  31 

order  of  things  which  should  give  greater  guaran- 
ties of  stability.  But  the  difficulty  of  establishing 
the  republican  form  might  perhaps  be  explained 
by  another  consideration.  France,  since  1789,  had 
been  democratic ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  conceive,  in  a 
great  European  state,  the  existence  of  a  republic 
without  an  aristocracy.1 

There  are  in  every  country  two  sorts  of  in- 
terests, very  distinct  and  often  opposed  to  each 
other, — general  interests  and  particular  interests, 
or,  hi  other  words,  permanent  interests  and  tran- 
sient interests.  The  first  do  not  change  with  suc- 
ceeding generations;  their  spirit  transmits  itself 
from  age*  to  age  by  tradition  rather  than  by  calcu- 
lation. These  interests  can  be  represented  only  by 
an  aristocracy,  or,  in  the  absence  thereof,  by  an 
hereditary  family.  The  particular  and  transient 
interests,  on  the  contrary,  change  continually  ac- 
cording to  circumstances,  and  can  be  well  un- 
derstood only  by  representatives  of  the  people, 
who,  being  renewed  continually,  present  a  faithful 
expression  of  the  wants  and  the  wishes  of  the 
masses.  Now,  France  having  no  longer  an  aris- 
tocracy, and  being  no  longer  able  to  maintain  an 

1 1  find  in  the  History  of  the  Revolution,  by  M.  Thiers,  an 
analogous  idea.  "  Upon  better  reflection,  it  would  be  seen  that 
"  an  aristocratic  element  is  more  particularly  suitable  to  repub- 
"  lies."  It  may  be  added  that  an  aristocracy  does  not  need  a 
chief,  whilst  it  is  the  nature  of  a  democracy  to  personify  itself 
in  one  man. 


32  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

aristocracy,  that  is  to  say,  a  privileged  body, 
whose  influence  is  great  only  because  its  authority 
is  consecrated  by  time,  the  republic  would  have 
been  destitute  of  this  conservative  power,  which, 
though  often  oppressive,  yet,  a  faithful  guardian  of 
general  and  permanent  interests,  built  up,  during  a 
series  of  centuries  at  Rome,  Venice,  and  London, 
the  greatness  of  their  respective  nations  by  simple 
perseverance  in  a  national  system. 

To  supply  this  want  of  stability  and  national 
perseverance,  which  is  the  great  defect  of  demo- 
cratic republics,  it  was  necessary  to  clteate  an 
hereditary  family,  which  should  be  the  conservator 
of  the  general  interests,  and  whose  power  should 
be  founded  upon  the  democratic  spirit  of  the 
nation. 

But,  let  opinions  differ  as  they  may  concerning 
the  value  of  these  considerations ;  let  Xapoleon  be 
I  censured  for  having  surmounted  his  republican 
I  laurels  with  a  crown;  let  the  French  people  be 
blamed  for  having  desired  and  sanctioned  this 
change — every  thing  is  susceptible  of  contro- 
versy— there  is  one  point,  upon  which  all  who 
recognize  in  the  Emperor  a  great  man  must  agree, 
and  that  is — even  if  he  erred — his  intentions  should 
always  have  been  up  to  the  level  of  his  faculties 
and  his  capacity.  It  is  the  height  of  inconsistency 
to  ascribe  to  a  great  genius  all  the  weaknesses  of 
mediocrity.  There  are,  however  vulgar  minds, 


GENERAL    IDEAS.  33 

which,  jealous  of  the  superiority  of  merit,  seem  to 
revenge-  themselves  by  ascribing  to  it  their  paltry 
passions.  Thus,  instead  of  comprehending  that  a 
great  man  can  be  guided  only  by  great  concep- 
tions, and  by  reasons  of  State  of  the  highest  and 
farthest  reach,  they  say :  "  Napoleon  made  him- 
"  self  Emperor,  because  he  was  ambitious ;  he  sur- 
"  rounded  himself  with  the  illustrious  names  of  the 
"  ancient  regime,  to  gratify  his  vanity ;  he  poured 
"  out  the  treasures  and  the  purest  blood  of  France, 
"  to  aggrandize  his  power  and  place  his  brothers 
"  upon  thrones ;  and  he  married  an  arch-duchess  of 
"  Austria,  in  order  to  have  a  real  princess  in  his 
"  bed."  "  Have  I  then  reigned  over  pigmies  in  in- 
"  telligence,  who  have  so  little  understood  me  ?" 
said  Napoleon,  at  St.  Helena,  in  a  moment  of 
chagrin. — Let  his  spirit  be  consoled !  The  masses 
have  for  a  long  time  done  him  justice :  every  day 
that  passes,  as  it  discovers  a  misery  which  he 
cured,  an  evil  which  he  extirpated,  throws  light 
upon,  and  explains  his  noble  plans.  And  his  great 
ideas,  which,  as  the  present  darkens,  shine  all  the 
brighter,  stand  as  luminous  beacons,  promising  and 
making  visible,  through  and  beyond  the  clouds  and 
tempests,  a  future  of  safety ! 


I 


CHAPTER    III. 

QUESTION   OF   THE   INTEKIOK. 

General  tendency. — Principles  of  fusion,  equality,  order,  and  justice.— 
Administrative  Organisation. — Judiciary  order. — Finances. — Chari- 
table institutions,  communes,  agriculture,  manufactures,  commerce. 
— The  Army. — Political  Organization. — Fundamental  principles. — 
I  Accusations  of  despotism. — Military  government. — Answers  to  these 
accusations. 

THE  different  governments  which  held  power 
successively  from  1789  to  1800,  obtained,  in  spite 
of  their  excesses,  great  results.  The  independence 
of  France  had  been  maintained ;  the  feudal  system 
had  been  broken  up,  and  salutary  principles  had 
been  widely  spread.  Nevertheless,  nothing  was  as 
yet  solidly  established ;  too  many"  hostile  elements 
stood  face  to  face. 

At  the  epoch  when  Napoleon  arrived  at  power, 
the  true  genius  of  legislation  consisted  in  judging 
by  a  coup  cfrceil  of  the  relations  which  existed  be- 
tween the  past  and  the  present,  between  the  pres- 
ent and  the  future. 


QUESTION   OP  THE  ESTEBIOB.  35 

It  was  necessary  to  solve  and  answer  the  fol- 
lowing questions : — 

What  ideas  have  passed  away  never  to  return  ? 

What  ideas  must  ultimately  triumph  ? 

Finally,  what  ideas  are  susceptible  of  immediate 
application,  and  will  hasten  the  reign  of  those  which 
are  destined  to  prevail  ? 

The  Emperor  made  by  a  rapid  glance  this  dis- 
tinction, and  though  he  distinctly  foresaw  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  future,  he  confined  his  action  to  the 
realisation  of  present  possibilities. 

The  great  difficulty  in  revolutions  is  to  avoid 
confusion  in  popular  ideas.  The  duty  of  every 
government  is  to  oppose  false  ideas,  and  to  guide 
true  ideas  by  placing  itself  boldly  at  their  head ; 
for  if,  instead  of  guiding,  a  government  allows  it- 
self to  be  led,  it  hastens  to  destruction,  and  com- 
promises society,  instead  of  protecting  it. 

The  Emperor  acquired  so  easily  his  immense 
ascendency,  because  he  was  the  representative  of 
the  true  ideas  of  his  age.  As  to  harmful  ideas,  he 
never  attacked  them  in  front,  but  always  in  flank, 
parleying  and  negotiating  with  them,  and  finally 
reducing  them  to  submission  by  a  moral  influence ; 
for  he  knew  that  violence  is  unavailing  and  worth- 
less against  ideas. 

Having  always  an  object  in  view,  he  employ- 
ed, according  to  circumstances,  the  most  prompt 
means  to  attain  it. 


36  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

"What  was  his  ultimate  object  ?  .  .  .  Liberty. 

Yes,  liberty !  and  the  more  one  studies  the  his- 
tory of  Napoleon,  the  more  will  he  be  convinced 
of  this  truth.  For  liberty  is  like  a  river ;  in  order 
that  it  may  bring  abundance  and  not  devastation, 
it  is  necessary  to  prepare  for  it  a  broad  and  deep 
channel.  If,  in  its  regular  .and  majestic  course,  it 
remains  within  its  natural  limits,  the  regions  which 
it  traverses  bless  its  passage ;  but,  if  it  comes  like 
an  overflowing  torrent,  it  is  regarded  as  the  most 
terrible  of  calamities ;  it  awakens  every  form  of 
distrust,  and  then  one  sees  men  in  their  prejudice 
reject  liberty  because  she  may  destroy,  as  if  one 
should  banish  fire  because  it  may  burn,  or  water 
because  it  may  inundate. 

But,  is  it  said  liberty  was  not  secured  by  the 
imperial  laws  ?  The  name  of  liberty  was  not,  it  is 
true,  placed  at  the  head  of  every  law,  or  placarded 
at  every  public  square  ;  but  every  law  of  the  Em- 
pire prepared  for  its  peaceful  and  certain  reign. 

When,  in  a  country,  there  exist  parties  ex- 
asperated against  each  other,  and  violent  mutual 
hatreds,  it  is  necessary  that  these  parties  disap- 
pear, and  these  hatreds  be  pacified,  before  liberty 
is  possible. 

When,  in  a  country  become  thoroughly  demo- 
cratic like  France,  the  principle  of  equality  is  not 
generally  applied,  it  must  be  introduced  into  all 
the  laws,  before  liberty  is  possible. 


QUESTION    OF   THE   INTERIOR.  37 

When  there  is  neither  public  spirit,  nor  re- 
ligion, nor  political  faith,  it  is  necessary  to  create 
at  least  one  of  these  elements,  before  liberty  is 
possible. 

When  the  ancient  manners  and  customs  have 
been  destroyed  by  a  social  revolution,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  create  new  manners  and  customs  in  har- 
mony with  the  new  principles,  before  liberty  is 
possible. 

When,  in  a  nation,  there  is  no  longer  an  aris- 
tocracy, and  nothing  remains  organized  but  the 
army,  it  is  necessary  to  reconstruct  a  civil  order, 
based  upon  a  precise  and  regular  organisation,  be- 
fore liberty  is  possible. 

Finally,  when  a  country  is  at  war  with  its 
neighbors,  arid  it  contains  in  its  bosom  paitisans 
of  its  enemies,  it  is  necessary  to  conquer  those  ene- 
mies, and  convert  them  into  sure  allies,  before 
liberty  is  possible. 

We  must  pity  those  who  wish  to  reap  before 
having  ploughed  the  field,  or  sown  the  seed,  or 
given  to  the  plant  the  necessary  time  to  germi- 
nate, to  blossom,  and  to  ripen  its  fruit.  It  is  a 
fatal  error  to  imagine  that  a  declaration  of  princi- 
ples is  sufficient  to  constitute  a  new  order  of 
things. 

After  a  revolution,  the  essential  thing  is  not  to 
make  a  constitution,  but  to  adopt  a  system,  which, 
based  upon  popular  principles,  possesses  all  the 


88  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

force  necessary  to  found  and  establish,  and  which, 
while  surmounting  the  difficulties  of  the  moment, 
possesses  in  itself  the  flexibility  which  enables  it  to 
adapt  itself  to  circumstances.     Besides,  after  a  con- 
flict, can  a  constitution  guaranty  itself  against  re- 
actionary passions  ?  how  dangerous  is  it  to  attempt 
to  convert  transitory  necessities  into  general  and 
1  permanent  principles  I1'  "A  Constitution,"  Napo- 
1  Icon  has  said,  "  is  the  work  of  tune ;  one  cannot 
1 "  provide  in  it  too  broad  a  power  of  amendment." 
"We  proceed  to  recapitulate,  under  the  preced- 
ing points  of  view,  the  actions  of  the  Emperor. 
To  judge  is  to  compare.    We  will  compare  then 
his  reign  with  the  immediate  epoch  which  preceded, 
and  with   the    epoch  which   followed.     We  will 
judge  his  plans  by  what  he  did  when  victorious — 
by  what  he  has  left  in  spite  of  his  defeat. 

When    Napoleon    returned  from    Egypt,   all 

J  A  thousand  examples  could  be  cited  to  support  this  idea. 
We  will  confine  ourselves  to  recalling  to  mind,  that  in  1792, 
in  order  to  prevent  the  government  from  re-establishing  the 
unequal  distribution  of  estates  among  children,  the  power  of 
disposing  of  property  by  will  had  been  substantially  taken 
away.  Napoleon  reformed  this  reactionary  law.  Under  the 
Restoration  the  Swiss  troops  were  detested — they  received 
more  pay  than  French  troops.  After  the  revolution  of  1830, 
it  was  not  considered  sufficient  to  send  them  away,  but  au 
article  was  introduced  into  the  Charter  forbidding  government 
to  employ  any  foreign  troops.  One  year  later  came  the  mis- 
fortunes of  Poland ;  6,000  Poles  took  refuge  in  France  ;  it  was 
desired  to  enlist  them  in  regiments,  but  the  reactionary  article 
of  the  Charter  prohibited  it ! 


QUESTION   OF  THE   INTERIOR.  39 

France  received  him  with  transport,  and  regarded 
him  as  the  savior  of  the  Revolution,  then  about  to 
expire.  France,  fatigued  by  so  many  successive 
efforts,  agitated  by  so  many  different  parties,  had 
gone  to  sleep  amidst  the  thunder  of  her  victories, 
and  seemed  about  to  lose  all  the  fruit  of  that  which 
she  had  acquired.  The  government  was  without 
moral  force,  without  principle,  without  virtue.  Fur- 
nishers and  contractors  were  at  the  head  of  society, 
and  held  the  highest  rank  hi  the  midst  of  corrup- 
tion. Generals  of  the  army,  such  as  Championnet 
at  Naples,  and  Brune  hi  Lombardy,1  feeling  that 
they  were  the  strongest,  began  to  refuse  obedience 
to  the  government,  and  imprisoned  its  representa- 
tives. Credit  was  annihilated,  the  treasury  was 
empty,  public  stock  had  fallen  to  eleven  per  cen- 
tum, waste  was  rife  in  the  administration,  the  most 
odious  brigandage  infested  France,  and  the  prov- 
inces of  the  west  were  in  a  constant  state  of  insur- 
rection. Finally,  the  ancient  regime  approached 
again  with  alarming  speed;  for  the  axe  of  the 
lictor  no  longer  protected  the  cap  of  liberty. 

Everybody  talked  of  liberty  and  equality ;  but  1 
each  party  wished  them  only  for  itself.    "We  want  J 
equality,  said  some  ;  but  we  do  not  wish  to  grant 
the  rights  of  citizenship  to  the  relatives  of  nobles 
and  of  emigrants  ;  we  propose  to  leave  a  hundred 

1  Thiers,  History  of  the  Revolution. 


40  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

and  forty-five  thousand  Frenchmen  in  exile.1  We 
want  equality,  said  others  ;  but  we  do  not  wish  to 
give  offices  to  conventionalists.  Finally,  we  want 
liberty ;  but  we  are  for  maintaining  the  law  which 
condemns  to  death  those  whose  writings  tend  to 
recall  the  ancient  regime ;  we  are  for  maintaining 
the  law  of  hostages,  which  destroys  the  security  of 
two  hundred  thousand  families  ;s  we  are  for  main- 
taining the  impediments  which  nullify  the  liberty 
of  worship,  etc.,  etc. 

Such  contradictions  between  professed  princi- 
ples and  their  practical  application  tended  to  in- 
troduce confusion  into  ideas  and  into  things.  It 
must  have  been  so,  so  long  as  there  was  not  a  na- 
tional power,  which,  by  its  stability  and  its  con- 
scious strength,  was  exempt  from  passion,  and  able 
to  give  protection  to  all  parties,  without  losing 
any  thing  of  its  popular  character. 

Men  have,  in  ah1  times,  had  the  same  passions. 
The  causes  which  produce  great  changes  are  dif- 
ferent, but  the  effects  are  often  the  same.  It  is 
almost  always  seen  that  in  times  of  trouble  the 
•'oppressed  cry  out  for  liberty  for  themselves,  and 
having  obtained  it,  that  they  refuse  to  grant  it  to 
those  who  were  their  oppressors.  There  existed 
hi  England,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  a  religious 

1  This  is  the  number  settled  by  the  report  of  the  minister 
of  police,  year  8. 

2  Bignon,  vol.  i.  p.  11. 


QUESTION   OF   THE   INTEEIOK.  41 

and  republican  sect,  which,  being  persecuted  by 
the  intolerance  of  the  clergy  and  the  government, 
resolved  to  quit  the  country  of  their  ancestors, 
and  go  beyond  the  seas  to  an  uninhabited  world, 
there  to  enjoy  that  sweet  and  holy  liberty  which 
the  old  world  refused  to  grant.  Victims  of  intol- 
erance, and  conscious  of  the  ills  which  it  inflicts, 
certainly  these  independent  men  will,  in  the  new 
country  which  they  go  to  found,  be  more  just  than 
their  oppressors !  But, — inconsistency  of  the  hu- 
man haart ! — the  very  first  law  passed  by  the  Puri- 
tans founding  a  new  society  in  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts, was  one  declaring  the  penalty  of  death 
to  those  who  should  dissent  from  their  religious 
doctrines ! 

We  must  admire  the  Napoleonic  spirit,  which 
was  never  either  exclusive  or  intolerant.  The 
emperor,  superior  to  the  petty  passions  of  parties, 
and  generous  as  the  people  whom  he  was  called  to 
rule,  professed  always  this  maxim,  that  in  politics 
evils  should  be  remedied,  not  revenged. 

The  abuse  of  the  royal  power,  and  the  tyranny 
of  the  nobility,  had  caused  that  tremendous  re- 
action which  is  called  the  Revolution  of  1789. 
This  brought  on  other  reactions  of  a  contrary  and 
most  calamitous  nature.  With  the  accession  of 
Napoleon,  ah1  the  reactionary  passions  ceased. 
Strong  in  the  sympathy  of  the  people,  he  pro- 
ceeded rapidly  to  the  abolition  of  ah1  unjust  laws ; 


42  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

he  cicatrized  all  wounds,  recompensed  all  merit, 
adopted  every  glory,  and  brought  all  Frenchmen 
to  concur  in  one  sole  object,  the  prosperity  of 
France. 

Scarcely  was  the  First  Consul  invested  with 
power,  before  he  revoked  the  laws  which  excluded 
the  relatives  of  emigrants  and  of  former  nobles 
from  the  exercise  of  political  rights  and  of  the 
functions  of  public  offices.  The  law  of  forced 
loans  was  recalled  and  replaced  by  an  extraordi- 
nary levy  additional  to  the  regular  taxes.  •Napo- 
leon put  an  end  to  the  requisitions  "  en  nature," 
and  established  the  law  of  hostages.  He  recalled 
the  writers  condemned  to  deportation  by  the  law 
of  the  19th  Fructidor,  year  5,  such  as  Carnot, 
Portalis,  Simeon.  He  allowed  the  conventional- 
ists Barrere  and  Yadier  to  return.  He  opened  the 
doors  of  France  to  more  than  one  hundred  thou- 
sand emigrants,  among  whom  were  the  members 
of  the  constituent  assembly.  He  caused  to  be 
restored  to  their  public  offices  certain  convention- 
alists, whom  it  had  been  desired  to  exclude.  He 
pacified  la  Vendee.  He  organized  the  administra- 
tion of  the  municipalities  in  the  cities  of  Lyons, 
Marseilles,  and  Bordeaux.  He  expressed  himself 
to  the  Council  of  State  on  one  occasion,  in  these 
words :  "  To  rule  by  means  of  a  party  is  to  put 
"  one's  self  sooner  or  later  in  dependence  upon  it. 
"  I  shall  not  fall  into  that  snare ;  I  am  national.  I 


QUESTION   OF  THE  ISTTEBIOB.  43 

"  make  use  of  all  who  have  the  capacity  and  the  will 
"to  march  with  me.  This  is  the  reason  why  I 
"  have  composed  my  Council  of  State  of  constitu- 
"ents  who  were  called  moderate,  or  feuillants, 
"  such  as  Defermon,  Roederer,  Regnier,  and  Reg- 
"nault;  of  royalists,  such  as  Devaines  and  Du- 
"  fresnes ;  finally,  of  Jacobins,  such  as  Brune,  R6al, 
"  and  Berlier.  I  love  honest  men  of  all  parties." 
Prompt  to  recompense  recent  services,  as  well  as 
to  illustrate  all  great  souvenirs,  Napoleon  placed 
in  the  Hotel  des  Invalides,  by  the  side  of  the  stat- 
ues of  Hoche,  Joubert,  Marceau,  Dugommier, 
and  Dampierre,  the  statue  of  Conde,  the  ashes  of 
Turenne,  and  the  heart  of  Vauban.  He  revived 
at  Orleans  the  memory  of  Jeanne  d'Arc,  at  Beau- 
vais  that  of  Jeanne  Hachette.  In  1800  he  made 
the  restoration  of  a  great  citizen,  Lafayette,  an  in- 
dispensable condition  of  a  treaty.  Later,  he  took 
as  aides-de-camp,  officers  (Drouot,  Lobau,  Ber- 
nard) who  had  been  opposed  to  the  consulate  for 
life ;  and  he  treated  with  the  same  benevolence 
senators  who  had  voted  against  the  establishment 
of  the  empire.  Always  faithful  to  the  principles 
of  conciliation,  the  Emperor,  in  the  course  of  his 
reign,  granted  a  pension  to  the  sister  of  Robes- 
pierre, as  he  did  to  the  mother  of  the  Duke  of 
Orleans.1  He  consoled  and  assisted  in  her  misfor- 

1  The  Emperor  granted  to  the  mother  of  the  present  king, 
Louis  Philippe,  a  pension  of  400,000  francs,  and  one  of  200,000 
francs  to  the  Duchess  of  Bourbon. 


44   '  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

tunes  the  widoAv  of  Bailly,  President  of  the  Consti- 
tuent Assembly,  and  supported  in  her  old  age  the 
last  descendant  of  Duguesclin. 

To  reunite  all  the  national  forces  against  the 
enemy,  to  reorganize  the  country  upon  principles 
of  equality,  order,  and  justice,  this  was  the  task 
of  Napoleon.  He  found  under  his  hand  many  ele- 
ments full  of  antipathy,  and,  according  to  his  own 
expression,  instead  of  extirpating  them,  he  united 
them  by  amalgamation. 

Divisions  existed  not  only  in  political  parties, 
but  also  in  other  bodies  of  the  nation.  The  clergy 
was  divided  between  the  old  and  the  new  bishops, 
the  high  and  the  low  church,  priests  sworn  par- 
tisans of  the  revolution,  and  refractory  priests. 
These  last  were  the  favorite  children  of  the  Pope. 
Profiting  by  the  influence  which  the  protection  of 
the  head  of  the  religion  gave  them,  they  perverted 
minds  through  writings  printed  abroad,  which 
they  scattered  over  the  country.  The  Emperor, 
by  his  concordat,  removed  the  leader  of  this  mis- 
guided flock,  and  brought  back  the  clergy  to  ideas 
of  concord  and  submission.1  The  republic  of  let- 

1  By  article  3  of  the  Concordat,  the  Pope  undertook  to 
procure  the  renunciation  of  the  emigrant  bishops,  whose  let- 
ters mandatory  and  pastoral  continued  to  sow  trouble  in  their 
ancient  dioceses.  Article  13  sanctioned  the  alienation  of  eccle- 
siastical property,  and  declared  the  title  of  possession  valid  in 
the  hands  of  purchasers. 


QUESTION   OF  THE    INTERIOR.  45 

ters  was  divided  between  the  Institute  and  the  old 
Academy.  He  merged  the  members  of  the  Acad- 
emy in  the  Institute,  and  the  savants  lived  in 
peace,  uniting  their  intelligence  to  illuminate  the 
nation,  and  hasten  the  progress  of  science.  There 
existed  ancient  names,  to  some  of  which  were  an- 
nexed souvenirs  of  glory ;  and  titles,  whose  influ- 
ence was  not  entirely  extinct.  Napoleon  recon- 
ciled ancient  and  new  France,  by  mingling  with 
the  inherited  titles  new  titles  acquired  by  merito- 
rious services.  The  Jews  formed  a  nation  within 
the  nation ;  some  of  their  dogmas  were  contrary 
to  the  French  civil  laws.  The  Emperor  caused  to 
be  convoked  the  grand  Sanhedrim,  which,  in  con- 
cert with  the  imperial  commissioners,  reformed 
those  political  regulations  of  the  law  of  Moses, 
which  were  susceptible  of  modification;  and  the 
Jews  became  citizens.  The  barriers  which  sepa- 
rated them  from  the  rest  of  the  nation  gradually 
disappeared. 

Especially  let  us  not  overlook  the  fact  that  all 
which  Napoleon  undertook  and  accomplished,  in 
order  to  effect  a  general  fusion,  was  done  without 
renouncing  the  principles  of  the  Revolution.  He 
recalled  the  emigrants  without  touching  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  irrevocability  of  the  sale  of  the  na- 
tional property.  He  re-established  the  Catholic 
religion  at  the  same  time  that  he  proclaimed  lib- 
erty of  conscience,  and  gave  equal  pecuniary  as- 


46  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

sistance  to  the  ministers  of  every  form  of  worship. 
He  caused  himself  to  be  consecrated  by  the  sov- 
ereign Pontiff,  without  subscribing  to  any  of  the 
concessions  trenching  upon  the  liberties  of  the 
Gallican  church  which  the  Pope  demanded.  He 
espoused  the  daughter  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria, 
without  surrendering  any  of  the  rights  of  France 
to  the  conquests  which  she  had  made.  He  re- 
established titles  of  nobility,  but  without  annexing 
to  them  privileges  or  prerogatives.  These  titles 
were  open  to  all  classes,  all  services,  and  all  pro- 
fessions. Under  the  Empire  all  idea  of  caste  was 
destroyed ;  no  one  pretended  to  boast  of  his  parch- 
ments. It  was  asked  what  one  had  done,  not  what 
was  his  birth. 

The  first  quality  of  a  people  that  aspires  to  a 
i  free  government  is  respect  for  the  law.  Now  a 
law  possesses  no  force,  except  in  the  interest  which 
each  citizen  has  to  respect  or  to  break  it.  In  or- 
der to  ingraft  in  the  people  respect  for  the  law,  it 
was  necessary  that  the  law  should  be  executed  for 
the  common  good,  and  that  it.  should  consecrate 
the  principle  of  equality  in  all  its  extent ;  it  was 
necessary  to  revive  the  prestige  of  authority,  and 
to  plant  deep  in  the  manners  and  customs  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  revolution ;  for  manners  and  cus- 
toms are  the  sanctuary  of  institutions.  At  the 
birth  of  a  new  society,  the  legislator  makes  the 
manners  and  customs,  or  corrects  them,  while  at 


QUESTION    OF  THE   INTERIOR.  47 

a  later  period  the  manners  and  customs  make  the 
laws,  or  preserve  them  from  age  to  age.  When 
institutions  are  in  harmony,  not  only  with  the 
interests,  but  still  more  with  the  sympathies  and 
the  habits  of  a  people,  then  is  formed  that  public 
and  national  spirit  which  forms  the  strength  of  a 
country,  because  it  serves  as  a  bulwark  against 
every  encroachment  of  power,  and  every  attack  of 
parties.  "  There  is  in  every  nation,"  says  Montes- 
quieu, "  a  general  public  spirit  upon  which  power 
"  itself  is  founded ;  when  it  shocks  that  public 
"  spirit,  the  shock  is  communicated  to  itself,  and  it 
"  necessarily  comes  to  a  stand-still." 

This  public  spirit,  so  difficult  to  create  after  a 
revolution,  was  formed,  under  the  Empire,  by  the 
establishment  of  those  codes  of  law  which  settled 
the  rights  of  every  one,  through  the  severe  mo- 
rality introduced  into  the  administration,  through 
the  promptitude  with  which  authority  repressed 
all  injustice — finally,  through  the  zeal  which  the 
Emperor  constantly  exhibited  to  satisfy  the  ma- 
terial and  the  moral  wants  of  the  nation.  His 
government  did  not  commit  the  fault  common  to 
so  many  others,  of  separating  the  interests  of  the 
soul  from  those  of  the  body,  casting  the  former 
into  the  regions  of  chimera,  and  admitting  the 
latter  only  into  the  domain  of  reality.  Napoleon, 
on  the  contrary,  in  giving  an  impulse  to  all^  the 
elevated  passions,  and  showing  that  merit  and 


48  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

virtue  lead  to  riches  and  honors,  proved  to  the 
world  that  the  noble  sentiments  of  the  human 
heart  are  but  the  flag  of  the  material  interests  of 
man  weh1  understood,  precisely  as  the  Christian 
morality  is  sublime  because,  even  as  a  civil  law,  it 
is  the  safest  guide  we  can  follow,  and  the  best 
counsellor  of  our  private  interests. 

But  it  was  not  sufficient,  in  order  to  recon- 
struct the  nation,  that  the  Emperor  should  repair 
the  evils  caused  by  the  injustice  of  former  govern- 
ments, or  that  he  should  derive  support  from  all 
classes  without  distinction ;  it  was  also  necessary 
that  he  should  organize  France. 

A  system  of  government  embraces  an  adminis- 
trative organisation  and  a  political  organisation. 
In  a  democratic  state,  such  as  France  was,  the  ad- 
ministrative organisation  was  the  most  important ; 
for  it  governed,  to  a  certain  degree,  the  political 
organisation.  In  an  aristocratic  country,  political 
action  being  in  the  hands  of  a  whole  class,  the 
holders  of  power  reign  rather  by  personal  than  by 
administrative  influence ;  the  governmental  force 
is  distributed  among  ah1  the  patrician  families.1 
But  in  a  government  of  which  the  foundation  is 

1  England  furnishes  an  example  in  support  of  this  opinion. 
The  lord-lieutenants  of  the  counties  have  not  half  the  power 
of  the  prefects  of  France,  but  they  have  twice  their  moral  in- 
fluence. Their  influence  is  derived  from  their  position  in  so- 
ciety ,«not  from  their  office ;  it  is  the  lord  who  governs,  much 
more  than  the  lieutenant  of  government. 


QUESTION    OF   THE   INTERIOR.  49 

democratic,  the  chief  alone  possesses  governmental 
power :  as  the  moral  force  is  derived  solely  from 
him,  so  every  thing  returns  to  him,  whether  love  or 
hatred.  In  such  an  order  of  society,  centralisation 
should  be  stronger  than  in  any  other ;  for  the 
agents  of  authority  have  only  that  prestige  which 
authority  lends  them,  and  in  order  that  they  may 
preserve  this  prestige,  it  is  necessary  that  they 
should  have  considerable  power  without  ceasing 
to  be  absolutely  dependent  upon  the  chief,  so  that 
they  may  be  subjected  to  the  most  vigilant  sur- 
veillance. 

ADMINISTRATIVE   ORGANISATION. 

The  administrative  organisation  of  the  Empire, 
like  the  greater  part  of  the  institutions  of  that 
epoch,  had  an  immediate  object  to  fulfil,  and  a 
distant  end  to  attain.  Centralisation  afforded  the 
only  means  of  constituting  France  so  as  to  estab- 
lish a  stable  regime,  and  form  a  compact  unity 
capable  of  resisting  Europe,  and  of  supporting,  at 
a  later  moment,  liberty.  .  The  excess  of  centralisa- 
tion, under  the  Empire,  ought  not  to  be  considered 
as  a  definitive  and  settled  system,  but  rather  as  a 
means  of  arriving  at  a  settled  system.  In  all  the 
institutions  of  the  Empire  this  is  the  predominant 
idea  and  the  general  tendency,  which  it  is  especially 
necessary  to  investigate  and  understand. 

A  good  administration  is  composed  of  a  regular 


50  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

system  of  taxes,  of  a  prompt  and  impartial  mode 
of  collecting  them ;  of  a  system  of  finances  which 
assures  public  credit ;  of  an  honorable  magistracy 
•which  will  cause  the  laws  to  be  respected ; — finally, 
of  a  system  of  administrative  machinery  which 
will  cause  the  life  to  circulate  from  the  centre  to 
the  extremities,  and  from  the  extremities  to  the 
centre.  But  that  which  especially  distinguishes  a 
good  administration,  is,  that  it  calls  forth  ah1  kinds 
of  merit,  and  all  rare  faculties  to  illuminate  its 
career  and  put  in  operation  all  improvements — 
that  it  represses  with  vigor  all  abuses — that  it  me- 
liorates the  lot  of  the  poorer  classes — that  it  rouses 
to  activity  all  branches  of  industry — that  it  holds  a 
just  balance  between  rich  and  poor,  between  those 
who  labor  and  those  who  employ,  between  the 
agents  of  power  and  those  who  are  controlled  by 
them. 

The  Convention  had  divided  France  into  de- 
partments. The  Emperor  facilitated  the  exercise 
of  power  by  the  creation  of  the  offices  of  prefect, 
sub-prefect,  mayor,  and  adjoint.  France  was  fur- 
ther divided  into  398  communal  arrondissements. 
Each  department  had  a  general  council  and  a 
council  of  the  prefecture ;  the  first  presided  over 
the  distribution  of  public  burdens,  and  watched 
the  special  agent  of  power ;  the  second  decided 
upon  claims  of  individuals  against  the  adminis- 
tration. 


QUESTION    OF   THE   LVTEEIOE.  51 

The  Emperor  rejoiced  at  Saint  Helena  in  the 
recollection  of  having  instituted  the  offices  of  a 
minister  of  the  treasury,  and  a  minister  secretary 
of  state.  The  minister  of  the  treasury  concen- 
trated all  the  resources  and  controlled  all  the  ex- 
penditures of  the  Empire.  The  secretary  of  state 
issued  all  acts  of  government ;  he  was  the  minis- 
ter of  the  ministers,  imparting  life  to  all  interme- 
diate actions,  the  grand  notary  of  the  Empire, 
signing  and  legalizing  all  documents. 

The  Emperor  introduced  order  and  economy 
into  all  branches  of  the  public  service,  as  well  as 
into  the  administration  of  all  the  institutions  of 
charity.  He  re-established  the  general  direction 
of  the  forests,  of  the  registry,  and  of  the  custom- 
houses, which  had  before  been  superintended  by 
collective  administrations.  The  administration  of 
the  forests  was  rendered  more  economical  and 
more  simple ;  that  of  the  registry  was  rendered 
less  onerous,  by  a  better  distribution  of  the 
taxes. 

As  to  the  military  administration,  we  see  in 
the  Memorial  de  Sainte  Helene  that  Napoleon 
found  it  too  extended.  "  They  had  centralized  at 
"  Paris,"  said  he,  "  the  direction  of  the  markets, 
"  of  the  furnishing  materials,  of  the  making  up, 
"  and  subdivided  the  correspondence  of  the  ministry 
"  among  as  many  persons  as  there  were  regiments. 
"  But,  on  the  contrary,  the  correspondences  should 


52  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

"have  been  centralized  and  the  resources  sub- 
divided by  transporting  them  into  the  several 
"  localities." 

The  judiciary  ordei*,  under  the  Directory,  was 
composed  of  417  correctional  or  criminal  tribunals, 
and  of  1,798  civil  tribunals.  In  1800,  a  tribunal  of 
first  instance  was  established  in  each  communal 
arrondissement ;  and  it  had  also  cognizance  of  mat- 
ters of  correctional  police,  an  arrangement  which 
very  much  facilitated  the  administration  of  justice 
among  the  citizens.  Above  these  tribunals  of  first 
instance,  were  constituted  29  courts  of  appeal. 
Each  department  had  a  criminal  tribunal.  The 
court  of  cassation  sat  at  Paris.  In  1810  the 
courts  of  appeal  and  the  criminal  courts  were 
united,  and  received  the  title  of  imperial  courts. 
They  had  cognizance  both  of  civil  and  of  criminal 
matters.  The  courts  of  criminal  justice  were 
abolished.  The  courts  of  assizes  and  the  special 
courts  were  branches  of  the  imperial  courts.  The 
union  of  these  two  kinds  of  justice  had  two  ad- 
vantages ;  first,  to  give  a  guaranty  of  justice  to 
the  accused  in  subjecting  him  to  a  less  rigorous 
jurisdiction,  one  which  was  not  exclusively  con- 
fined to  the  discovery  of  crimes,  in  the  matters 
which  were  brought  before  it ;  second,  the  civil 
magistracy  being  generally  respected,  and  the 
criminal  magistracy  being,  from  the  very  nature 
of  its  functions,  unpopular,  the  fusion  of  these  two 


QUESTION   OF   THE   INTEKIOB.  53 

judiciary  bodies  resulted  in  causing  the  criminal 
magistracy  to  participate  in  the  public  respect 
which  surrounded,  the  civil  magistracy. 

As  a  proof  of  the  excellence  of  the  judiciary 
institutions  of  the  Empire,  it  is  well  to  remark 
that  crimes  constantly  diminished  in  number,  and 
that  the  number  of  prisoners  of  state,  which  was 
9,000  on  the  18th  Brumaire,  was  reduced  to  150 
in  1814. 

The  finances  of  a  great  state,  ought,  according 
to  the  Emperor,  to  provide  the  means  of  meeting 
the  exigencies  of  extraordinary  circumstances,  and 
even  of  the  vicissitudes  of  the  most  obstinate  wars, 
without  recourse  to  the  imposition  of  new  taxes, 
the  settlement  of  which  is  always  difficult.  His 
system  consisted  in  having  a  large  number  of 
taxes  which  pressed  lightly  upon  the  people  in 
ordinary  times,  and  of  which  the  percentage  was 
raised  or  lowered  according  to  public  need,  by 
means  of  additional  centimes. 

It  is  well  known  to  how  many  abuses  the  col- 
lection of  taxes  was  subjected  before  the  18th 
Brumaire,  and  the  treasury  possessed  at  that  epoch 
only  150,000  francs.  The  dividends  and  pensions 
of  the  State  were  paid  only  in  paper,  which  was 
at  a  considerable  discount.  Payments  into  the 
treasury  were  made  hi  more  than  forty  different 
kinds  of  things.  It  was  impossible  to  make  np  a 
budget. 


54  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  Consulate,  Pitt, 
our  terrible  adversary,  thought  he  saw  in  the  defi- 
ciency of  money  and  of  credit  the  near  ruin  of 
France.  He  did  not  know  all  the  resources  within 
the  reach  of  a  skilful  and  strong  government.  One 
year  sufficed  Napoleon,  after  the  18th  Brumaire, 
to  regulate  the  collection  of  contributions ;  so  that, 
while  abolishing  all  violent  processes,  he  met  the 
expenditures,  diminished  the  taxes,  restored  a  me- 
tallic currency,  and  held  three  hundred  millions  of 
francs  in  securities. 

"  Finances  founded  upon  a  good  system  of  ag- 
"  riculture  never  fail ; "  these  were  the  words  of 
the  First  Consul.1  Facts  have  proved  that  he  was 
right. 

By  the  order  and  regularity  which  he  intro- 
duced into  the  administration  and  into  the  budgets, 
he  revived  credit.  He  favored  the  creation  of  the 
bank  of  France ;  but  while  he  rendered  it  inde- 
pendent of  the  government,  he  reserved  over  it  a 
power  of  control.  He  required,  not  that  it  should 
lend  him  money,  but  that  it  should  afford  facilities 
for  realizing  economically  the  revenues  of  the  State, 
at  convenient  times  and  places.  He  showed  con- 
stantly a  disposition  to  come  to  its  assistance  in 
moments  of  difficulty.  u  Notwithstanding  the  bad 
"  spirit  and  the  distrust  with  which  certain  gov- 
"ernors  of  the  bank  are  animated,"  said  he  in 
1  Letter  of  Napoleon  to  the  King  of  England. 


QUESTION   OF  THE   INTEKIOB.  55 

1805,  "  I  will,  if  necessary,  stop,  the  pay  of  my  sol- 
"  diers  to  sustain  the  bank."  It  was  his  intention 
to  establish  branches  of  this  institution  in  all  the 
great  cities  of  France. 

He  created  the  office  of  minister  of  the  treas- 
ury independent  of  the  minister  of  finances.  He 
did  not  wish  an  alliance  between  the  bank  and  the 
treasury,  because  he  thought  that  a  simple  move- 
ment of  funds  might  disclose  a  secret  of  State. 
One  of  the  most  important  innovations  which  were 
introduced  into  the  treasury,  was  the  keeping  of 
accounts  by  double  entry. 

France  ought  to  rejoice  that  the  system  of 
borrowing,  which  at  this  time  weighs  so  heavily 
upon  England,  was  not  put  in  practice  under  the 
Empire.  Napoleon  had  settled  upon  different 
principles,  in  limiting  by  a  special  law  the  sum 
total  of  the  public  debt  to  eighty  million  francs 
of  annual  dividends. 

Among  the  meliorations  which  ought  to  be 
credited  to  the  Empire  is  the  law  which  required 
receivers-general,  notaries,  and  stock-brokers  to 
give  bonds.  For  a  new  government  it  was  essen- 
tial that  the  price  of  public  stocks  should  be  main- 
tained in  a  progressive  state  of  improvement ;  and 
the  natural  consequence  of  this  necessity  was  a 
right  of  police  and  surveillance  over  those  who, 
speculating  only  upon  the  rise  and  fall  of  public 
stocks,  might  have  an  interest  to  cause  them  to 


56  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

fall.  The  enlightened  investigations  of  the  Em- 
peror advanced  so  far  as  to  cause  the  tariff  of  an- 
nuities to  be  rectified,  because  not  in  accordance 
with  the  calculation  of  probabilities. 

He  established  the  sinking-fund,  and  expressed 
himself  thus  on  that  occasion  :  "  It  is  said  that  a 
"  sinking-fund  should  be  only  a  machine  for  bor- 
"  rowing ;  that  may  be  true ;  but  the  time  has  not 
"come  for  France  to  found  her  finances  upon 
"  loans."  He  created  a  "  caisse  de  service,"  which 
was  charged  with  the  principal  duty  of  effecting 
with  rapidity  the  local  application  of  the  receipts 
to  the  expenditures  in  the  departments.  He 
opened  accounts  current  with  the  receivers-gen- 
eral. 

It  was  his  intention  to  create  "  caisses  d'activi- 
tbj*  the  increasing  amounts  of  funds  belonging  to 
which  would  have  been  consecrated  to  works  of 
public  improvement.  There  would  have  been  a 
"caisse  cPactivite"  of  the  Empire  for  national 
works,  a  "  caisse "  of  the  departments  for  local 
works,  and  a  "  caisse  "  of  the  communes  for  mu- 
nicipal works. 

In  1 806,  tolls  and  road  taxes  were  abolished ; 
and  a  law  authorized  the  levying  of  a  tax  upon  the 
entry  of  goods,  in  ah1  cities  in  which  the  civil  hos- 
pitals had  not  sufficient  revenues. 

The  Council  of  Liquidation,  instituted  in  1802, 
ceased  its  labors  the  30th  of  June,  1810.  It  had 


QUESTION    OF   THE   INTERIOR.  57 

liquidated  all  the  debts  of  the  State ;  that  long- 
continuing  open  wound  of  the  Revolution,  as  M. 
Thibaudeau  expressed  it,  was  at  length  closed. 

The  Emperor  estimated  that  France  needed  a 
budget  of  300,000,000  francs  for  a  state  of  war, 
and  of  600,000,000  francs  for  a  state  of  peace. 
The  budget,  under  the  Empire,  never  exceeded 
the  above-mentioned  figures,  except  after  the  re- 
verse of  Moscow ;  even  then,  in  spite  of  war,  it 
was  400,000,000  francs  less  than  that  with  which 
twenty-four  years  of  profound  peace  have  bur- 
dened France.  The  Emperor  did  not  expend  for 
his  own  uses  half  his  civil  list ;  he  employed  the 
exce'ss  in  forming  a  reserve  fund,  or  in  executing 
public  works,  or  in  assisting  manufactures.  In 
1814,  all  his  reserves  were  consecrated  to  carry  on 
the  national  war. 

A  good  system  of  settling  accounts  is  the  indis- 
pensable complement  of  a  good  system  of  finances. 
The  constitution  of  the  year  8  had  preserved  a  com- 
mission of  control  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  ac- 
counts ;  it  was  not  equal  to  the  immense  work 
accumulated  upon  it.  From  1792  to  1807,  of 
11,477  accounts,  the  commission  had  passed  upon 
only  8,793.  The  Emperor,  anxious  to  regulate 
every  thing,  established  the  court  of  accounts,  which 
brought  up  the  arrears  of  this  important  branch  of 
the  public  service. 

The  Emperor  has  been  reproached  with  having, 
3* 


58  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

in  adjusting  the  taxes,  too  much  favored  landed 
property.  It  was  his  opinion  that,  during  times 
of  peace,  it  was  best  to  husband  the  resources  of 
direct  imposts,  because  these  alone  in  time  of  war 
support  all  the  burden;  and  that  it  was  best  to 
take  advantage  of  the  activity  which  peace  imparts 
to  consumption  to  levy  upon  it  indirect  contribu- 
tions which  it  cannot  furnish  in  times  of  war. 
Besides,  there  may  have  been  a  political  object  in 
this  temporary  preference ;  for  it  should  be  noticed 
that  the  political  changes  which  had  taken  place 
since  1789  had  created  about  ten  millions  of 
landed  proprietors ;  and  that  these  proprietors,  all 
whose  interests  were  attached  to  the  revolution, 
formed  a  class  which  the  government  had  particu- 
lar reasons  for  sustaining,  because  that  body  of 
new  holders  of  land  was  called  upon  to  form  a 
public  spirit.  The  Emperor  said  one  day  in  the 
council  of  state  :  "  The  system  of  imposed  taxes  is 
"  bad  ;  under  it  there  is  neither  property  nor  civil 
"liberty;  for  civil  liberty  depends  upon  the  se- 
"  curity  of  property.  It  does  not  exist  in  a  coun- 
"  try  where  the  vote  of  the  tax-payer  may  every 
"year  be  changed.  One  who  has  3,000  francs 
"  rent  does  not  know  how  much  will  be  left  the 
"  next  year  for  his  subsistence.  The  imposed  tax 
"  may  absorb  his  whole  income.  We  see  men,  for 
"  a  miserable  interest  of  fifty  or  a  hundred  francs, 
"  make  solemn  pleas  before  grave  tribunals,  and  a 


QUESTION   OF   THE   INTEBIOB.  59 

u  simple  clerk  can,  by  a  single  stroke  of  his  pen, 
"  overburden  you  by  several  thousand  francs !  In 
*'  such  a  state  of  things  property  does  not  exist. 
"  When  I  buy  a  piece  of  land,  I  do  not  know 
*'  what  I  am  purchasing.  In  Lombardy,  in  Pied- 
"rnont,  they  have  a  land  tax  assessment  book. 
"  Every  one  knows  beforehand  what  he  must  pay. 
"  The  book  is  unalterable ;  changes  are  made  in  it 
"  only  in  extraordinary  cases,  and  alter  a  formal 
"judgment.  If  the  levy  is  increased,  every  one 
"  bears  his  share  according  to  the  book,  and  he 
"  can  make  his  calculations  in  his  office.  One 
"  knows  what  he  has ;  and  he  has  a  property. 
"Why  is  there  not  public  spirit  in  France?  be- 
"  cause  a  proprietor  is  obliged  to  court  the  favor 
"  of  the  administration.  If  he  stands  ill  with  it, 
"  he  is  ruined.  Judgments  upon  reclamations  are 
"  arbitrary ;  for  this  reason  in  no  other  country 
"  are  people  so  servilely  attached  to  government 
"  as  in  France,  because  property  is  dependent 
"  upon  its  favor.  In  Lombardy,  on  the  contrary, 
"  a  proprietor  lives  upon  his  land,  without  troub- 
"ling  himself  as  to  who  governs.  Nothing  has 
"  ever  been  done  in  France  for  property.  He 
"  who  will  introduce  a  good  law  concerning  assess- 
"  ments  (cadastre)  will  deserve  a  statue."  In 
1810  the  assessment  register  (cadastre)  was  put  in 
operation  in  3,200  communes ;  about  600,000  pro- 


60  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

prietors  in  these  communes  enjoyed  the  advantage 
of  proportional  equality. 

Property  in  mines  had  never  been  regulated 
except  imperfectly.  In  1810  it  was  regulated  by 
laws,  and  the  Emperor  created  a  body  of  engineers 
of  mines. 

The  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  poorer 
classes  was  one  of  the  first  preoccupations  of  the 
Emperor.  In  a  letter  to  the  Minister  of  the  Inte- 
rior of  the  2d  November,  1807,  he  said  that  he 
would  consider  the  doing  away  with  mendicity  a 
great  glory.  He  established  depots  of  mendicity ; 
forty-two  existed  already  in  1809.  In  order  to 
find  the  most  effectual  means  of  relieving  the 
misery  of  the  people,  he  solicited  the  advice  of  all 
writers  upon  the  Subject.  He  founded  the  mater- 
nal institution,  which  was  to  have  a  council  of  ad- 
ministration in  every  great  city  of  the  Empire. 
The  institution  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity  was  re- 
established with  all  its  ancient  advantages,  and 
without  the  abuses  which  had  perverted  its  orig- 
inal intention.  Six  houses  destined  to  receive  the 
orphans  of  members  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  to 
the  number  of  600,  were  established  in  1810.  The 
Hotel  des  Invalides  received  in  1803  a  new  organ- 
isation, and  several  branches  were  established  at 
different  points.  Napoleon  created  asylums  in  the 
country  for  the  veterans,  where  each  person  who 
was  admitted  received  a  rural  tenement,  a  piece 


QUESTION   OF   THE   INTERIOR.  61 

of  land  producing  a  net  income  equal  to  the 
amount  of  his  retiring  pension. 

In  1807,  the  property  which  a  decree  of  the 
Convention  had  alienated  from  the  hospitals  was 
restored  to  them. 

Convicts  of  the  criminal  tribunals,  and  of  the  cor- 
rectional police,  had  been  promiscuously  mingled 
in  the  prisons  with  the  suspected  and  the  accused. 
The  government  adopted  the  system  of  central 
prisons,  exclusively  for  those  who  had  been  con- 
demned to  imprisonment  for  a  year  or  longer. 

The  Emperor  desired  that  public  worship  should 
be  gratuitous,  and  adapted  to  the  people  ;  that  a 
decent  burial  should  be  granted  to  the  poor  with- 
out charge.  "  No  one  has  a  right,"  said  he,  "  to 
"  lay  a  tax  upon  the  dead :  the  poor  should  not  be 
"  deprived  because  they  are  poor,  of  that  which 
"  consoles  them  in  their  poverty."  He  ordered 
that  the  churches  should  be  opened  gratuitously 
to  the  public  ;  and  that  if  a  church  was  hung  with 
black  for  the  funeral  services  of  a  rich  man,  it  should 
not  be  unhung  until  after  pei'forming  the  services 
for  the  poor.  It  was  his  intention  to  reduce  the 
price  of  places  in  the  pit  of  the  Theatre  Fran?ais 
on  Sunday,  in  order  that  the  poorer  classes  might 
enjoy  the  masterpieces  of  our  literature.  In  the 
address  which  he  delivered,  in  1807,  to  the  legis- 
lative body — he  said  that  in  every  part  of  his  Em- 
pire, even  in  the  smallest  village,  the  comfort  of 


62  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

the  citizens  and  the  value  of  land  would  be  soon 
increased  in  consequence  of  the  general  system  of 
amelioration  which  he  had  planned. 

War  prevented  the  complete  realisation  of  so 
comprehensive  a  scheme,  and  arrested  the  execu- 
tion of  a  great  number  of  other  philanthropic 
ameliorations.  Among  them  we  cite  the  desire  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  inconveniences  existing  at  the 
house  of  detention  of  the  prefecture  of  police  in 
Paris,  where  honest  men  were  obliged  to  pass 
the  night  in  company  with  thieves  and  worse 
criminals. 

Communes. — The  administration  of  France  was 
organizing  its  machinery.  It  was  necessary,  as 
has  been  before  said,  to  centralize  every  thing,  in 
order  to  ameliorate,  vivify,  and  establish,  with  the 
intention  to  distribute  later  at  the  circumference  its 
due  proportion  of  power,  which  the  centre  had 
temporarily  absorbed. 

The  Emperor  was  alive  to  the  importance  of  a 
good  communal  administration,  and  said  that  care 
must  be  taken  not  to  destroy  the  municipal  spirit. 
He  often  took  the  side  of  the  mayors  against  the 
prefects,  and  desired  that  they  should  be  present 
at  the  inauguration  of  the  mayors.  It  was  his 
opinion  that  the  taxes  levied  upon  the  entrance  of 
goods  into  cities  or  towns,  should  be  administered 
by  the  mayors  for  the  benefit  of  the  communes, 


QUESTION   OF   THE   INTERIOB.  63 

and  that  the  prefects  should  confine  themselves  to 
simple  superintendence. 

To  encourage,  in  the  rural  communes,  exchanges 
and  settlements,  calculated  to  do  away  with  the 
evils  of  excessive  partition,  and  of  the  tying  up  of 
titles  to  land,  the  government  exempted  from  pay- 
ing the  fees  of  registry,  the  first  commune  whose 
inhabitants  should  accomplish  what  was  desired  by 
a  general  mutual  agreement. 

The  communal  spirit  is  essentially  conservative ; 
all  that  it  acquires,  whether  it  be  an  abuse  or  an 
advantage,  it  holds  with  equal  tenacity.  In  order 
to  regenerate  the  communes,  it  was  necessary  to 
deprive  them  of  a  part  of  their  rights,  until  their 
training  should  be  completed ;  then,  only,  would 
have  been  granted  to  them  a  greater  independ- 
ence, without  danger  to  the  general  welfare.  The 
prosperity  of  the  communes  was  the  object  of  the 
most  anxious  solicitude  of  the  Emperor. 

"  To  work,"  said  he,  "  for  the  prosperity  of 
"  36,000  communes,  is  to  work  for  the  prosperity 
"  of  30,000,000  of  population,  by  simplifying  the 
"  question,  and  by  diminishing  the  difficulty  per- 
"taining  to  great  numbers,  whose  difference  is  in- 
"  dicated  by  the  proportion  between  36,000  and  30,- 
"  000,000."  With  this  view  the  Emperor  divided 
the  communes  into  three  classes :  communes  which 
were  in  debt ;  communes  whose  accounts  were 
square ;  and  communes  having  disposable  resources. 


64  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

By  certain  ways  and  means,  which  he  explained  to 
the  minister  of  the  interior,  five  years  would  have 
sufficed  to  clear  away  the  indebted  communes ;  there 
would  then  have  remained  only  the  two  classes,  viz. : 
those  whose  accounts  were  square,  and  those  having 
disposable  resources ;  and  at  the  end  of  ten  years 
every  commune  in  France  would  have  been  in 
possession  of  disposable  resources. 

"  The  alienation  of  the  property  of  the  corn- 
"  munes,  considered  in  reference  to  the  progress 
"  of  agriculture,"  said  the  Emperor,  "  is  the  most 
"  important  question  of  political  economy  which 
"  can  be  agitated."  The  discussion  of  it  was  cut 
short  by  the  imperious  necessities  of  war.  In  1813, 
the  lands,  houses,  and  factories,  belonging  to  the 
communes  were  ^old ;  they  retained  the  woods, 
pastures,  turf-fields,  and  other  property,  which  the 
inhabitants  enjoyed  in  common,  or  from  which  they 
derived  no  revenue,  as  well  as  the  buildings  ap- 
propriated to  the  public  service,  and  the  places 
which  contributed  to  the  public  health  or  pleasure. 
The  property  which  was  to  be  sold  was  conveyed 
to  the  sinking  fund.  The  communes  received,  in 
five  per  cent,  stock,  an  income  equal  to  the  net  rev- 
enue derived  from  the  property  conveyed. 

It  is  very  clearly  seen,  from  what  precedes, 
that  the  intentions  of  the  Emperor  were  all  di- 
rected towards  the  amelioration  of  the  material 
well-being  of  the  country.  It  is  also  seen  that 


QUESTION   OF  THE   ESTTEK1OK.  65 

when  the  disasters  of  war  compelled  him  to  have 
recourse  to  expedients,  the  resources  which  he 
knew  how  to  develop  were  not  destructive  of  the 
interests  of  the  country,  and  that  they  were  dif- 
ferent from  the  means  employed  by  other  govern- 
ments in  similar  circumstances.  He  did  not  resort 
either  to  paper-money,  or  to  forced  loans,  or  to 
excessive  borrowing,  or  to  the  depreciation  of  the 
value  of  coin,  as  was  done  even  by  Frederic  the 
Great. 

The  Emperor  had  made  precise  discriminations 
among  the  resources  of  a  State.  "  Once,"  said  he, 
"  only  one  kind  of  property  was  recognized,  prop- 
"  erty  in  land ;  then  came  another  kind,  that  of 
"  industry,  which  is  now  engaged  in  a  contest  with 
"  the  first ;  it  is  the  great  contest  of  the  field 
"  against  the  counting-room,  of  the  battlements 
"  against  fhe  trades ;  then  came  a  third  kind,  de- 
"  rived  from  the  enormous  taxes  levied  upon  the 
"  people,  and  which,  distributed  by  the  neutral 
"  and  impartial  hands  of  government,  affords  pro- 
"  tection  against  the  monopoly  of  the  others,  serves 
"  as  their  medium  of  communication,  and  prevents 
"  their  proceeding  to  acts  of  violence."  He  made 
the  following  classification : 

Agriculture  ;  the  foundation' of  the  Empire. 

Manufactures  ;  representing  the  comfort,  the 
happiness  of  the  population. 

Foreign   commerce ;    representing   superabun- 


66  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

dance,  and  the  good  employment  of  Agriculture 
and  Manufactures. 

Foreign  commerce,  very  much  inferior  to  the 
two  other  branches  in  its  results,  -was  for  this 
reason  constantly  subordinated  to  them  in  the 
mind  of  Napoleon.  "  Foreign  commerce  is  made 
"  for  the  two  other  branches — they  are  not  made 
"  for  it.  The  interests  of  these  three  essential 
"bases  are  divergent,  often  opposite.  I  have 
"  always  treated  them  with  reference  to  their 
"  natural  rank." 

Agriculture  did  not  cease  at  any  time  to  make 
great  advances  under  the  Empire.  "  Agriculture, 
"  like  all  other  arts,"  said  Napoleon,  "  perfects  it- 
"  self  by  means  of  comparison  and  example."  He 
directed  the  prefects  to  make  known  to  him  the 
agricultural  proprietors  who  distinguished  them- 
selves, whether  by  a  better  understood  or  more 
rational  culture,  or  by  a  more  careful  training  of 
farm  animals  and  improvement  of  breeds.  In  such 
departments  as  were  behindhand  in  the  arts  of 
cultivation,  the  good  proprietors  were  induced  to 
send  their  children  to  study  and  learn  the  methods 
employed  in  the  departments  where  agriculture 
was  in  a  flourishing  state.  Praise  and  distinction 
were  awarded  to  those  who  excelled. 

The  rural  code,  projected  in  1802,  was  sub- 
mitted in  1808  to  commissions  of  consultation, 
formed  in  each  branch  of  the  court  of  appeal,  and 


QUESTION   OP  THE  I3TTERIOB.  67 

composed  of  the  most  distinguished  judges,  ad- 
ministrators, and  agriculturists.  This  code  could 
not  be  completed  under  the  Empire. 

In  1807  the  government  created,  in  the  vete- 
rinary school  of  Alfort,  a  professorship  of  rural 
economy. 

Manufactures  were  not  only  encouraged,  under 
the  Empire,  but  it  may  be  said  that  they  were,  in 
a  certain  sense,  created.  They  attained  in  a  short 
time  a  high  degree  of  prosperity. 

The  Emperor,  in  saying  that  manufactures 
represented  a  new  kind  of  property,  expressed  in 
a  single  word  its  importance  and  its  nature.  The 
spirit  of  property  is,  of  itself,  encroaching  and  ex- 
clusive. Property  in  land  had  had  its  vassals  and 
its  serfs.  The  revolution  enfranchised  the  land  ; 
but  the  new  property — that  of  manufactures — 
growing  daily,  tended  to  pass  through  the  same 
phases  as  the  first,  and  to  have,  like  the  first,  its 
vassals  and  its  serfs. 

Napoleon  foresaw  this  tendency,  which  is  in- 
herent in  every  system  which  advances  by  con- 
quest :  and  while  he  protected  the  masters  of  in- 
dustrial establishments,  he  did  not  forget  the  rights 
of  the  workmen.  He  established  in  Lyons,  and 
later  in  other  manufacturing  cities,  a  council  of 
discreet  men  (prud'hommes)^  veritable  judges  of 
the  peace  in  industrial  matters,  whose  duty  it 
was  to  settle  the  differences  which  might  arise 


68  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

between  employers  and  employed.  Regulations 
were  published  concerning  the  police  of  factories, 
trade-marks,  disputants,  and  the  respective  duties 
of  workmen  and  manufacturers.  Chambers  of  con- 
sultation— concerning  manufactures,  factories,  arts, 
and  crafts — were  instituted.  There  was  inaugu- 
rated at  the  ministry  of  the  interior  a  council- 
general  of  factories  and  manufactures.  The  Em- 
peror asvsisted  often,  by  means  of  his  civil  list, 
branches  of  manufacture  which,  for  want  of  a 
market,  were  in  danger  of  stopping  work.  It  was 
his  intention  to  aid  industry  by  the  establishment 
of  a  special  fund  for  that  purpose.  He  wrote, 
after  the  battle  of  Eylau,  to  the  minister  of  the  in- 
terior :  "  My  object  is  not  to  prevent  this  or  that 
"  merchant  from  failing ;  the  resources  of  the  State 
"  would  not  suffice  for  that ;  but  to  prevent  a 
"  branch  of  manufacture  from  perishing.  My  ob- 
"ject  is  to  supply  the  place  of  sales  by  a  temporary 
"  loan.  I  wish,  to  found  a  stable  and  permanent 
"  establishment,  to  endow  it  with  a  capital  of  forty 
"  or  fifty  millions,  so  that,  in  times  of  cessation  of 
"  demand,  and  stagnation,  the  position  of  the  man- 
"  ufacturer  shall  be  less  severe." 

The  Emperor  raised  up  manufacturing  indus- 
try, by  causing  the  sciences  to  co-operate  in  its 
improvement.  "  If  I  had  had  sufficient  time,"  said 
he,  "  soon  there  would  have  been  no  crafts  in 
"  France.  The  arts  would  have  taken  their  place." 


QUESTION   OF   THE   INTERIOR.  69 

Indeed,  under  his  reign,  chemistry  and  mechanics 
were  applied  to  the  improvement  of  all  branches 
of  industry.  Besides,  how  many  new  machines 
were  created,  and  useful  inventions  made,  during 
the  imperial  regime. 

If  the  spirit  of  association  did  not  make  greater 
progress  in  France,  it  was  not  for  want  of  encour- 
agement on  the  part  of  the  chief  of  the  State ;  for 
in  the  midst  of  the  preoccupations  of  war,  he  or- 
dered the  minister  of  the  interior  to  endeavor  to 
sell  to  companies  the  canals  which  were  finished, 
and  enjoined  upon  him  in  1807  to  cause  the  iron 
bridge  of  Jena  to  be  constructed,  as  the  Pont  des 
Ails  had  been,  by  a  company. 

The  Emperor  always  opposed  the  re-establish- 
ment of  wardenships  and  guilds.  He  founded 
schools  of  arts  and  crafts  at  Chalons.  High  prizes 
were  offered  for  the  encouragement  of  ah1  inven- 
tions. The  sum  of  a  million  francs  was  promised 
to  the  inventor  of  the  best  machine  for  spinning 
flax  ;  a  first  prize  of  40,000  francs  and  a  second  of 
20,000,  to  the  inventor  of  the  best  machinery  for 
picking,  carding,  combing,  and  spinning  wool. 

He  created  the  cotton  manufacture  in  France, 
including  yarns,  cloths,  and  prints.  Before  the 
Empire  the  art  of  spinning  cotton  was  not  known  in 
France ;  .  and  cotton  cloths  were  imported  from 
abroad.  Cotton  was  cultivated  advantageously  in 
the  South  of  France,  in  Corsica,  and  in  Italy  :  the 


70  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

crop  was  estimated  in  1810  at  100,000  kilogrammes. 
Merino  sheep  were  distributed  throughout  tfye  Em- 
pire. He  gave  directions  to  search  for  granite, 
and  to  this  we  are  indebted  for  the  quarries  which 
are  now  worked.1  European  products  took  the 
place  of  foreign  products  ;  pastel  was  substituted 
for  indigo  ;  beet-root  for  the  sugar-cane ;  garance 
for  cochineal ;  artificial  soda  for  foreign  soda ;  and 
now  all  these  products  are  sources  of  wealth  to 
France.  The  manufacture  of  beet-root  sugar  amounts 
to  50,000,000  kilogrammes  a  year. 

Foreign  commerce  beyond  the  seas  could  not, 
on  account  of  war,  be  much  extended.  But  the 
commerce  of  the  interior  received  a  great  develop- 
ment; for  it  may  be  said  that  at  that  time  the 
commerce  of  the  interior  embraced  the  commerce 
of  the  European  continent,  from  Hamburg  to 
Rome. 

A  council-general  of  commerce,  as  of  industry, 
was  installed  under  the  minister  of  the  interior. 

In  all  his  treaties,  the  Emperor  endeavored  to 
favor  French  commerce.  In  1808,  he  opened  the 
markets  of  Spain  to  the  national  products,  by  sup- 
pressing the  prohibition  of  the  silks  of  Lyons, 
Tours,  and  Turin.  He  secured  a  market  in  like 
manner  for  the  cloths  of  Carcassonne,  the  linens  of 
Bretagne,  and  French  ironware.  He  desired  that 
commerce  should  establish  at  St.  Petersburg!! 
1  Bignon. 


QUESTION    OF  THE   INTERIOR.  71 

French  houses,  which  should  receive  French  mer- 
chandise, and  introduce  into  France  the  merchan- 
dise of  Russia.  And  to  this  time,  thanks  to  a 
treaty  made  by  the  Emperor  with  Russia,  France 
obtains  from  that  country  her  timber  for  the  build- 
ing of  ships. 

The  commercial  code  was  completed  and  adopt- 
ed in  1807. 

The  public  works,  which  the  Emperor  caused 
to  be  executed  upon  so  great  a  scale,  were  not 
only  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  the  internal 
prosperity  of  the  country,  but  they  contributed 
much  towards  social  progress.  In  fact,  these 
works,  while  multiplying  the  means  of  communi- 
cation, produced  three  great  advantages :  First, 
they  employed  all  the  idle,  and  thus  assisted  the 
poorer  classes.  Second,  they  favored  and  encour- 
aged agriculture,  manufactures,  and  commerce ; 
the  creation  of  new  roads  and  canals,  increasing 
the  value  of  lands,  and  facilitating  the  transporta- 
tion and  sale  of  products.  Third,  they  destroyed 
the  spirit  of  locality,  and  removed  barriers,  such 
as  those  which  separate  not  only  the  different  prov- 
inces of  a  State,  but  different  nations,  by  rendering 
easier  all  the  connections  and  relations  of  men,  and 
drawing  closer  the  bonds  which  ought  to  unite 
them.  The  system  of  Napoleon  consisted  in  exe- 
cuting by  the  State  a  great  number  of  works,  and 
after  finishing  them,  in  selling  them  and  applying 


72  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

the  proceeds  to  other  works.  It  is  important  to 
notice  that,  in  spite  of  war,  the  Emperor  found  the 
means  of  expending  in  twelve  years,  1,005,000,000 
francs  in  public  works.  And  the  man  who  had  so 
great  treasures  at  his  disposition,  who  distributed 
700,000,000  francs  in  endowments,  never  possessed 
any  private  property ! 

Public  instruction  ought,  under  an  enlightened 
regime  like  that  of  the  Empire,  to  participate  in 
the  impulse  given  by  the  chief  of  the  State  to  all 
branches  of  the  administration.  "  Only  those," 
said  the  Emperor,  "  who  seek  to  deceive  the  peo- 
"  pie,  and  rule  for  their  own  advantage,  wish  to 
"  keep  them  in  ignorance ;  for  the  more  enlight- 
"  ened  the  people  is,  the  greater  will  be  the  num- 
"  ber  of  those  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  hav- 
"  ing  and  of  supporting  laws,  and  the  more  settled, 
"  prosperous,  and  happy  will  society  be  ;  and  if  a 
"  time  shall  ever  arrive  when  intelligence  will  be 
"  injurious  to  the  masses,  it  will  only  be  when  the 
"  government,  in  hostility  to  the  interests  of  the 
"  people,  shall  crowd  it  into  a  forced  position,  or 
"  reduce  the  lowest  class  to  starvation ;  for  then 
"  the  multitude  will  use  its  greater  intelligence 
"  either  to  defend  itself  or  to  commit  crimes." 

The  National  Convention  had  already  done  a 
great  deal  towards  overthrowing  the  Gothic  edifice 
of  instruction.  But  in  times  of  trouble,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  found ;  and  the  projected  establishments  of 


QUESTION   OF  THE  INTEEIOE.  73 

instruction  remained  incomplete  and  unfinished. 
There  were  primary  schools  only  in  the  cities  ;  the 
central  schools  were  vacant.  In  1802,  Napoleon 
divided  the  institutions  of  instruction  into  three 
classes  :  first,  the  municipal  or  primary  schools,  of 
which  there  were  to  be  23,000 ;  second,  the  sec- 
ondary schools  or  communal  colleges ;  third,  the 
lyceums  and  special  schools,  maintained  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  public  treasury.  The  Institute  was 
at  the  head.  The  greatest  activity  was  imparted 
to  the  creation  of  the  schools.  The  cities  and  the 
departments  disputed  for  them  with  .emulation, 
and  offered  to  bear  the  expenses  of  them. 

There  were  established  at  first  forty-five  lyce- 
ums ;  there  was  to  have  been  one  at  least  for  each 
arrondissement  of  every  tribunal  of  appeals.  Three 
commissions  of  savants  went  through  the  country, 
to  provide  the  lyceums  with  all  the  materials  of 
instruction.  There  were  6,400  pupils  pensioners 
of  the  State. 

The  government  caused  to  be  written  works 
concerning  instruction, — in  mathematics,  by  La 
Race,  Monge,  and  Lacroix ;  in  natural  history,  by 
Dum6nil ;  in  mineralogy,  by  Brongniart ;  in  chem- 
istry, by  Adet ;  in  astronomy,  by  Biot ;  in  phys- 
ics, by  Haxiy. 

The  title  of  French  Prytaneum,  under  which, 
until  then,  several  colleges  had  been  comprised, 
was  given  in  1803  exclusively  to  the  College  of 


74  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

Saint-Cyr, — a  school,  free  of  charge,  reserved  for 
the  children  of  officers  who  had  died  on  the  field 
of  battle.  The  pupils  of  this  school,  after  having 
undergone  examination,  passed  to  the  special 
school  of  Fontainebleau,  which  was  also  created 
at  that  epoch. 

There  were  established  a  special  naval  school, 
and  ship-schools  at  Toulon  and  Brest. 

Two  practical  schools  of  mines  were  founded  : 
one  at  Geislautern,  in  the  department  of  the  Saar ; 
the  other  at  Pesey,  in  the  department  of  Mont- 
Blanc. 

In  1806,  the  Emperor  felt  the  necessity  of  reg- 
ulating instruction  by  a  general  system.  It  has 
been  charged  against  this  system  that  it  shackled 
liberty ;  but,  as  has  been  before  said,  the  tune  for 
liberty  had  not  come.  When  a  government  finds 
itself  at  the  head  of  a  nation  which  has  just  thrown 
off  all  ideas  derived  from  the  past,  it  is  its  duty  not 
only  to  guide  the  present  generation,  but  to  bring 
up  the  rising  generation  in  the  principles  which 
caused  the  revolution  to  triumph.  "  There  can 
"  be  no  stable  political  state,"  said  the  Emperor, 
"  if  there  be  not  a  corps  of  instruction  with  set- 
"  tied  principles.  The  creation  of  such  a  body 
"  will,  on  the  contrary,  fortify  civil  order." 

The  system  of  education,  provided  with  suit- 
able restrictions,  was  a  great  and  beautiful  monu- 
ment in  harmony  with  the  plan  of  the  imperial 


QUESTION   OF   THE   LNTERIOK.  75 

organisation,  which  addressed  itself  to  all  capaci- 
ties, opening  the  way,  tracing  the  lines  with  preci- 
sion, and  removing  all  obstacles.  To  all  of  you 
who  desire  to  devote  yourselves  to  the  art  of  in- 
struction, as  to  the  art  of  medicine,  or  to  the  science 
of  jurisprudence,  the  career  is  open :  provided 
only  that  society  have  the  proper  guaranties  that 
you  are  capable  of  teaching  morality  and  not  vice ; 
that  you  know  how  to  distinguish  between  health- 
ful plants  and  poisonous  juices ;  and  that,  pupils 
of  the  laws,  you  have  studied  their  spirit,  and 
know  how  to  defend  them ! 

The  first  regulations  adopted  by  Napoleon  had 
caused  great  progress  to  be  made  in  public  in- 
struction. Numerous  schools  had  been  established, 
but  they  were  isolated  and  independent  of  each 
other.  The  career  of  teachers  and  professors  was 
not  assured;  they  were  subjected  to  no  general  reg- 
ulation. The  Emperor  conceived  the  plan  of  con- 
necting by  intimate  relations  ah1  these  establish- 
ments ;  by  uniting  in  one  body  all  the  professors, 
and  raising  the  consideration  and  importance  of 
their  occupation  to  a  level  with  the  most  honor- 
able employments. 

Public  instruction,  in  the  whole  Empire,  was 
intrusted  exclusively  to  the  university.  The  uni- 
versity was  composed  of  as  many  academies  as 
there  were  courts  of  appeal.  The  schools  belong- 
ing to  an  academy  were  placed  in  the  following 


76  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

order:  1st,  the  faculties  of  the  high  sciences,  and 
for  the  conferring  of  degrees ;  2d,  the  lyceums ; 
3d,  the  colleges  and  secondary  communal  schools  ; 
4th,  institutions,  schools  kept  by  private  teachers  ; 
5th,  boarding-schools  belonging  to  private  teach- 
ers, and  devoted  to  studies  less  advanced  than 
those  pursued  at  the  institutions ;  6th,  the  little  or 
primary  schools.  The  little  seminaries  were  under 
the  superintendence  of  the  university. 

There  were  five  orders  of  faculties ;  those  of 
theology,  law,  medicine,  mathematical  sciences, 
and  physical  sciences.  There  was  a  faculty  of 
theology  for  every  metropolitan  church,  besides 
one  at  Strasbourg,  and  one  at  Geneva  for  the  re- 
formed religion.  The  schools  of  law  formed  twelve 
faculties ;  the  schools  of  medicine  five.  A  faculty 
of  sciences  and  a  faculty  of  letters  were  established 
near  each  lyceum,  the  chef-lieu  of  an  academy. 

In  each  faculty  the  degrees  were  those  of 
bachelor,  licenciate,  and  doctor ;  they  were  con- 
ferred after  examinations. 

The  administrative  hierarchy  of  instruction  com- 
prised nineteen  degrees.  No  one  could  be  called 
to  a  place  without  having  passed  through  the  in- 
ferior places,  and  having  obtained  in  the  different 
faculties  a  rank  corresponding  to  the  nature  and 
importance  of  the  functions.  The  functionaries 
were  divided  into  titularies,  officers  of  the  univer- 
sity, and  officers  of  the  academies ;  they  were  sub- 


QUESTION   OF   THE   INTERIOB.  77 

jected  to  strict  discipline.  After  thirty  years' 
uninterrupted  service,  they  could  be  declared 
emeriti,  and  receive  a  retiring  pension. 

The  university  was  presided  over  and  governed 
by  the  grand  master,  appointed  by  the  Emperor, 
and  removable  at  his  will. 

The  council  of  the  university  was  composed  of 
thirty  members.  At  the  chef-lieu  of  each  academy 
there  was  an  academic  council  of  ten  members. 

There  were  inspector-generals  of  the  university 
whose  duty  it  was  to  visit  establishments  of  in- 
struction at  the  order  of  the  grand  master. 

There  was  to  be  established  near  each  acad- 
emy, and  in  the  colleges  and  lyceums,  one  or  more 
schools,  for  the  purpose  of  forming  good  masters 
for  the  primary  schools. 

The  university  was  to  strive,  without  cessation, 
to  perfect  instruction  in  all  its  branches,  to  en- 
courage the  composition  of  classical  works,  and 
especially  to  take  care  that  instruction  in  the  sci- 
ences should  be  always  up  to  the  level  of  all  ac- 
quired knowledge,  and  that  the  spirit  of  system 
should  never  arrest  progress. 

The  lyceums,  of  which  the  number  was  brought 
up,  in  1811,  to  one  hundred,  were  to  be  the  nurs- 
eries of  professors,  rectors,  and  masters.  The  Em- 
peror desired  to  present  to  them  great  motives  to 
emulation,  in  order  that  the  young  men  who  might 
devote  themselves  to  instruction  should  have  be- 


78  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

fore  them  a  perspective  of  promotion  from  one 
grade  to  another,  up  even  to  the  chief  places  of 
the  State.  There  were  in  each  lyceum  twenty 
pupils  maintained  at  the  expense  of  government ; 
eighty  received  assistance  to  the  extent  of  one- 
half,  and  fifty  to  the  extent  of  three-quarters 
of  their  expenses,  so  that  the  poor  endowed  with 
talent  might  have  a  means  of  making  themselves 
known. 

In  the  impulse  which  he  imparted  to  instruc- 
tion, Napoleon  replaced  the  study  of  the  dead 
languages,  which  until  then  had  been  almost  ex- 
clusively taught,  by  the  study  of  the  most  useful 
physical  and  mathematical  sciences,  and  in  the 
same  spirit  he  opposed  the  desire  to  give  medi- 
cine pre-eminence  over  surgery. 

The  Polytechnic  school,  the  foundation  of  which 
is  to  be  credited  to  the  Directory,  received  a  great 
development,  and  furnished  distinguished  officers 
to  the  army,  and  savants  in  all  branches  of  practi- 
cal science. 

The  Normal  school,  planned  under  the  Con- 
vention, received  its  beneficial  settlement  and  estab- 
lishment under  the  Empire. 

Napoleon  created,  under  the  title  of  imperial 
houses,  two  establishments ;  one  for  the  education 
of  daughters  of  members  of  the  Legion  of  Honor, 
the  other  for  the  education  of  orphans.  In  the 
first,  the  pupils  received  a  brilliant  education ;  in 


QUESTION   OF  THE  INTEKIOB.  79 

the  second,  they  were  taught  all  the  employments 
of  women  suited  to  enable  them  to  gain  their  own 
subsistence. 

Provision  was  made  for  children  whose  educa- 
tion was  confided  to  public  charity.  They  consisted 
of  three  classes  ;  foundlings,  children  who  had  been 
deserted  by  their  parents,  and  poor  orphans.  An 
asylum  in  each  arrondissement  received  them. 

A  school  of  anatomical  preparations  was  estab- 
lished at  Rouen.  The  school  of  arts  and  trades 
founded  in  1803  at  Compiegne,  and  afterwards 
transfered  to  CMlons  upon  the  Marne,  was  intend- 
ed to  distribute  throughout  the  country  the  bene- 
fits of  an  industrial  education.  In  1806,  a  second 
was  created  at  Beaupreau,  and  a  third  in  the  ab- 
bey of  Saint  Maximilian,  near  Treves. 

The  French  school  of  fine  arts,  at  Rome,  was 
restored  to  activity  and  transferred  to  the  Villa 
Medici.  Fifteen  pupils  were  sent  and  maintained 
there. 

The  Emperor  did  not  confine  himself  to  creat- 
ing schools,  he  also  encouraged  all  kinds  of  merit 
by  prizes  and  recompenses,  for  which,  with  a  view 
to  excite  emulation,  all  the  savants  of  Europe  were 
invited  to  compete.  A  prize  of  60,000  francs  was 
ofiered  to  the  one  who  should  make  an  important 
advance  in  galvanism,  and  another  an  annual  medal 
of  the  value  of  3,000  francs  for  the  best  new  ex- 
periments which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Institute, 


80  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

should  be  made  in  the  same  branch.  In  1808,  the 
celebrated  English  chemist,  Davy,  gamed  the  an- 
nual prize. 

The  decennial  prizes  which  were  then  founded, 
were  to  encourage  all  sciences  and  all  arts.  There 
were  nine  of  10,000  francs  each,  and  thirteen  of 
5,000  francs. 

Among  the  numerous  encouragements  granted 
to  the  sciences,  should  be  mentioned  the  prize  of 
12,000  francs  promised  to  the  author  of  the  best 
treatise  upon  the  disease  called  the  croup. 

The  Emperor  consecrated  the  right  of  property 
to  the  heirs  of  authors  dying  and  leaving  posthu. 
mous  works. 

He  conceived  the  idea  of  establishing  a  sort 
of  literary  university,  composed  of  about  thirty 
professorships,  so  connected  that  they  should  form 
a  complete  system — adapted  to  facilitate  liter- 
ary, geographical,  historical,  and  political  re- 
searches ;  where,  for  instance,  any  one  who  de- 
sired to  study  an  epoch,  could  obtain  information 
as  to  the  works  he  ought  to  read,  the  memoirs 
and  chronicles  he  ought  to  refer  to ;  where  any 
one  intending  to  travel  could  obtain  necessary  in- 
formation concerning  his  journey. 

"The  only  reasonable  encouragement  for  liter- 
"ature,"  said  the  Emperor,  "is  membership  in 
"  the  Institute ;  this  gives  to  poets  character  and 
"  consideration  in  the  State."  He  desired  that  a 


QUESTION   OF   THE   INTERIOR.  81 

second  class  of  the  Institute  should  form  a  sort  of 
literary  tribunal,  charged  with  the  duty  of  giving 
analytical  (raisonnee)  and  impartial  criticisms  of 
works  of  a  certain  degree  of  merit  which  should 
appear. 

He  spared  nothing  to  honor  the  memory  of 
deceased  savants.  At  Osterode,  all  covered  with 
the  dust  of  battle,  he  gave  directions  to  place  the 
statue  of  D'Alembert  in  the  hall  of  session  of  the 
Institute.  He  caused  monuments  to  be  erected  to 
Voltaire  and  to  Rousseau. 

The  busts  of  Tronchet  and  of  Portalis,  com- 
pilers of  the  first  plan  of  the  Code  Napoleon, 
were  placed  in  the  hall  of  the  Council  of  State. 

At  Cambray  a  monument  was  erected  over  the 
ashes  of  Fenelon. 

In  spite  of  wars  the  imperial  government  neg- 
lected nothing  that  could  advance  the  sciences. 
Thus  in  1806,  among  other  things,  he  ordered 
the  publication,  at  his  expense,  of  the  history  of 
the  travels  and  discoveries  made  from  1800  to 
1804,  by  Peron,  Lesueur,  and  Captain  Baudin. 

Biot  and  Arago  were  sent  to  Spain,  to  con- 
tinue the  measurement  of  the  meridian  arc  as  far 
as  the  Balearic  Islands. 

The  National  Institute  was  required  to  make 
up  a  general  resume  and  picture  of  the  progress 
of  science,  letters,  and  arts,  from  the  year  1789; 

it  was  to  be   presented  to   the  government  by 
4* 


82  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

a  deputation,  every  five  years.  This  body  was 
also  expected  to  state  its  views  concerning  dis- 
coveries, the  application  of  which  it  might 
deem  useful  to  the  public  service ;  concerning 
the  assistance  and  encouragement  of  which  the 
sciences,  arts,  and  letters  stood  in  need  ;  and  con- 
cerning improvements  in  the  methods  employed  in 
the  different  branches  of  public  instruction. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  the  Emperor  gave  to  in- 
struction the  same  impulse  which  he  gave  to  in- 
dustry, and,  as  Thibaudeau  has  said, — it  was  the 
pupils  of  the  lyceums,  who,  after  the  fall  of  the 
Empire,  continued  in  art,  science,  and  letters,  the 
glory  of  France. 

Of  the  army.  It  would  be  beyond  our  subject 
to  investigate  all  the  improvements  which  were 
introduced  into  the  organisation  of  the  army,  and 
to  recount  its  illustrious  deeds.  The  whole  world 
knows  the  exploits  of  those  heroic  soldiers,  who, 
from  Arcole  to  Waterloo,  seconded  the  gigantic 
enterprises  of  Napoleon,  and  died  for  him  with 
happiness,  because  they  knew  that  they  died  for 
France.  Besides,  it  would  take  too  long  to  re- 
capitulate all  that  the  army  did  for  the  Emperor, 
and  all  that  he  did  for  the  army.  Let  us  examine 
solely,  in  a  social  point  of  view,  the  military"  or- 
ganisation. 

The  conscription,  which,  unhappily,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  continuance  of  war,  was  such  a 


QUESTION   OF   THE   INTERIOR.  83 

burden  to  France,  was  one  of  the  greatest  insti- 
tutions of  the  age.     Not  only  did  it  consecrate  the 
pi-inciple  of  equality,  but,  as  has  been  said  by  Gen- 
eral Foy,  "  it  was  calculated  to  be  the  palladium  of 
"  our  independence,  because,  placing  the  nation  in 
"  the  army,  and  the  army  in  the  nation,  it  furnished 
"  inexhaustible  resources  for  defence."    The  prin- 
ciple which  presided  over  the  formation  of  the  law 
concerning    conscription  was    to    have    received 
greater  developments ;  and  it  may  be  said,  that 
the  ideas  of  the  Emperor  have  been  put  in  opera- 
tion by  other  governments,  among  them  by  Prus- 
sia.    It  was  not  sufficient  that  the  army  was  re- 
cruited from  the  whole  nation ;  it  was  also  neces- 
sary that  the  whole  nation  should,   in  case   of 
disaster,  form  a  reserve  to  the  army.     The  Em- 
peror said :  "  Never  does  a  nation  which  repels  an 
"  invasion  want  men ;  but,  often,  soldiers."     The 
military  system  of  Prussia  offers  immense  advan- 
tages ;  it  removes  the  barriers  which  separate  the 
citizen  and  the  soldier ;  it  gives  the  same  motive, 
and  the  same  object  to  all  men  under  arms — the 
defence  of  the  soil  of  the  country ;  it  furnishes  the 
means  of  maintaining  a  great  military  force,  with 
the  least  possible  expense  ;  it  enables  a  whole  popu- 
lation to  resist  invasion  with  success.    The  army, 
in  Prussia,  is  a  great  school,  in  which  all  the  youth 
instruct  themselves  in  the  art  of  arms ;  the  land- 
wehr,  which  is  divided  into  three  bans,  is  the  re- 


84  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

serve  of  the  army.  In  the  military  organisation, 
there  are  then  several  classifications,  but  all  are 
derived  from  the  same  source,  all  look  towards  the 
same  end.  There  is  emulation,  not  rivalry,  among 
the  organized  corps. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  national  guard,  which 
had  fallen  into  disuse  in  the  last  years  of  the  Re- 
public, was  re-established  by  Napoleon  in  1806. 
In  1812  it  was  divided  into  three  bans,  composed: 
the  first,  of  men  of  20  to  26  years  (of  the  six  last 
years  of  service  of  the  conscription),  who  had  not 
before  been  enlisted ;  the  second,  of  all  the  able- 
bodied  men  of  26  to  40  years ;  the  third,  or  arriere 
ban,  of  men  from  40  to  60  years  of  age.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  this  system  was  completely  similar  to 
that  which  is  now  in  vigor  in  Prussia.  "  At  the 
"restoration  of  peace,"  said  the  Emperor,  "I 
"  should  have  brought  all  the  sovereigns  to  main- 
"  tain  only  their  guard ;  I  should  have  proceeded 
"  to  organise  the  national  guard  in  such  a  manner 
"  as  that  each  citizen  would  know  his  post  in  time 
"  of  need :  then,"  added  he,  "  would  have  been 
"  seen  a  nation  well  cemented,  able  to  resist  both 
"  time  and  men." 

POLITICAL   ORGANISATION. 

We  have  passed  rapidly  in  review  the  adminis- 
trative organisation  of  the  Empire,  and  called  at- 
tention to  the  principal  material  benefits  of  that 


QUESTION   OF   THE   INTEKIOB.  85 

epoch.  Let  us  now  cast  a  rapid  glance  over  its 
political  organisation. 

In  the  first  place,  let  me  be  permitted  to  say 
that  I  consider  the  tendency  which  exists  in  France, 
to  desire  always  to  copy  and  adopt  the  institutions 
of  foreign  countries,  to  be  a  misfortune.  Under 
the  Republic,  people  were  Roman  ;  then  the  Eng- 
lish constitution  appeared  to  be  thought  the  master- 
piece of  civilisation ;  the  titles  of  "  noble  peer " 
and  "  honorable  member "  seemed  more  liberal 
than  those  of  tribune  and  senator ;  as  if  in  France, 
that  country  of  honor,  to  be  "  honorable "  was  a 
title  and  not  a  quality.  Finally  arose  the  Ameri- 
can school.  Shall  we  never  be — ourselves  ?  Eng- 
land, it  is  true,  has  offered  us  for  a  long  tune  a 
splendid  spectacle  of  parliamentary  liberty.  But 
what  is  the  chief  element  of  the  English  constitu- 
tion ?  What  is  the  foundation  of  the  edifice  ? 
The  aristocracy.  Suppress  the  aristocracy,  and  in 
England  there  would  be  no  political  organisation  ; 
"the  same  as  in  Rome,"  said  Napoleon,  "if  re- 
"  ligion  had  been  taken  away,  nothing  would  have 
"  remained." 

In  the  United  States  of  America,  we  see  also 
great  things  ;  but  what  single  point  of  comparison 
is  there  between  that  country  and  France  ?  The 
United  States  have  not  yet  become  a  social  world, 
for  the  organisation  of  such  a  world  presupposes 
stability  and  order;  stability,  attachment  to  the 


86  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

soil,  to  landed  property — conditions  impossible  to 
fulfil  so  long  as  the  commercial  spirit,  and  the  dis- 
proportion between  the  number  of  the  inhabitants 
and  the  extent  of  territory  shall  cause  land  to  be  con- 
sidered as  merchandise.  Man  has  not  yet  taken  root 
in  America ;  he  is  not  incorporated  with  the  land  ; 
his  interests  are  personal,  not  territorial.1  In  Ameri- 
ca, commerce  stands  in  the  first  rank ;  then  come 
manufactiires ;  and,  last,  agriculture.  It  is  the 
European  order  reversed.  (See  page  65.) 

France,  in  many  points  of  view,  is  at  the  head 
of  civilisation;  and  yet  it  seems  to  be  doubted 
whether  she  may  give  herself  laws  which  are 
uniquely  French — that  is  to  say,  laws  adapted  to 
her  own  wants,  modelled  upon  her  own  nature, 
and  in  harmony  with  her  political  position!  Let 
us  adopt  from  foreign  countries  such  improve- 
ments as  long  experience  has  consecrated ;  but  let 
us  preserve  in  our  laws  French  forms,  French  in- 
stinct, and  French  spirit.  "Politics,"  says  a 
writer,  M.  Dannou,  "is  the  application  of  his- 
"  tory  to  the  ethics  of  society."  The  same  may  be 
said  as  to  constitutions:  it  is  necessary  that  the 
compact  which  unites  the  different  members  of  a 
social  organisation,  should  derive  its  form  from 
the  experience  of  the  past,  from  the  present  state 
of  the  society,  and  from  its  prospective  spirit. 
A  constitution  should  be  framed  specially  for  the 
1  See,  upon  this  subject,  De  Tocqueville. 


QUESTION   OF  THE  INTERIOR.  87 

nation  to  which  it  is  to  be  adapted.  It  should  be 
like  a  garment  which,  if  well  made,  will  fit  but  one 
man. 

In  a  political  point  of  view,  the  Emperor  could 
organize  France  only  provisionally ;  but  all  his  in- 
stitutions contained  a  germ  of  improvement  which 
at  the  restoration  of  peace  he  would  have  de- 
veloped. 

To  begin,  let  us  establish  one  truth,  name-\ 
ly,  that  when  the  French  people  proclaimed  Na-  \ 
poleon  Emperor,  France  was  so  fatigued  by  dis-    ' 
orders  and  continual  changes,  that  all  concurred 
to  invest  the  chief  of  the  state  with  the  most  ab- 
solute power.     The  Emperor  had  no  need  to  covet    \ 
it ;  it  was  thrust  upon  him.     By  as  much  as  public 
opinion  had  formerly  demanded  the  diminution  of 
executive  power,  because  it  was  deemed  hostile, 
by  so  much  did  opinion  exert  itself  to  augment  it, 
when  it  was  satisfied  that  the  executive  power  was 
tutelary  and  remedial.     It  depended  only  on  Napo- 
leon to  have  neither  a  legislative  body  nor  a  senate, 
so  weary  were  men  of  those  eternal  discussions,  kept 
up,  as  he  expressed  it,  by  a  mob  of  men  who  dis- 
puted with  acrimony  about  the  tint,  before  having 
secured  the  triumph  of  the  color. 

The  Emperor  Napoleon  did  not  commit  the 
fault  of  many  statesmen — that  of  desiring  to  sub- 
ject the  nation  to  an  abstract  theory,  which  be- 
comes, in  such  case,  for  a  country  a  bed  of  Pro- 


88  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

crustes ;  he  studied,  on  the  contrary,  with  care,  the 
character  of  the  French  people,  their  wants,  and  their 
present  condition ;  and  upon  the  data  acquired  he 
organized  a  system,  which  he  could  continue  to 
modify  according  to  circumstances.  "  Where 
"  should  I  have  been,"  said  he,  "  face  to  face  with 
"  all  Europe  with  a  government  built  of  ruins,  the 
"  foundations  of  which  were  not  yet  firmly  seated, 
"and  those  forms  to  be  continually  combined 
"with  new  circumstances  depending  even  upon 
"  variations  of  foreign  politics,  if  I  had  subjected 
"these  combinations  to  absolute  methods  which 
"admit  of  no  modifications,  and  which  are  efficient 
"  only  because  they  are  immutable  ?  " 

The  predominant  idea,  which  presided  over  all 
the  internal  establishments  of  the  Emperor,  was 
the  desire  to  found  civil  order.1  France  was  sur- 
rounded by  powerful  neighbors.  Since  Henry  IV., 
she  had  been  the  object  of  the  jealousy  of  Europe. 
She  required  a  large  permanent  army  to  maintain 
her  independence.  That  army  was  organized ;  it 
had  its  colonels,  its  generals,  its  marshals ;  but  the 
rest  of  the  nation  was  not  organized ;  and  by  the  side 

1 "  I  wish  to  organize  in  France  civil  order.  Up  to  the 
"  present  time  there  have  been  in  the  world  only  two  powers, 
"  the  military  and  the  ecclesiastical.  The  barbarians,  who  in- 
"  vaded  the  Roman  Empire,  could  not  found  a  solid  establish- 
"  ment,  because  they  were  destitute  both  of  a  body  of  priests 
"  and  of  a  civil  order."  "Words  of  the  Emperor  before  the 
Council  of  State. 


QUESTION   OF  THE   IOTEKIOB.  89 

of  this  military  hierarchy,  by  the  side  of  these 
dignities  to  which  glory  lent  so  much  lustre,  it  was 
necessary  that  there  should  be  civil  dignities  of 
equal  weight  and  influence ;  otherwise  the  govern- 
ment would  be  always  in  danger  of  falling  into  the 
hands  of  a  fortunate  soldier.  The  United  States 
offer  us  a  striking  example  of  the  inconveniences, 
which  attend  the  weakness  of  a  civil  authority. 
Although,  in  that  country,  there  are  none  of  the 
fermentations  of  discord,  which  for  a  long  tune 
yet  will  trouble  Europe,  the  central  power,  being 
weak,  is  alarmed  at  every  independent  organisa- 
tion ;  for  every  independent  organisation  threatens 
it.  It  is  not  military  power  alone  which  is  feared ; 
but  money  power — the  bank :  hence  a  division  of 
parties.  The  president  of  the  bank  might  have 
more  power  than  the  President  of  the  country ;  for 
a  much  stronger  reason,  a  successful  general  would 
soon  eclipse  the  civil  power.  In  the  Italian  repub- 
lics, as  in  England,  the  aristocracy  constituted  the 
organized  civil  order ;  but  France  having,  happily, 
no  longer  any  privileged  bodies,  it  was  by  means 
of  a  democratic  hierarchy,  which  should  not  of- 
fend the  principle  of  equality,  that  the  same  ad- 
vantages were  to  be  secured. 

Let  us  examine  in  this  point  of  view  the  consti- 
tutions of  the  Empire. 

The  principles  upon  which  the  imperial  laws 
were  settled  were : 


90  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

Civil  equality,  in  harmony  with  the  democratic 
principle. 

A  hierarchy,  in  harmony  with  the  principles  of 
order  and  stability. 

Napoleon  was  the  supreme  chief  of  the  state, 
the  elect  of  the  people,  the  representative  of  the 
nation.  In  his  public  acts,  it  was  the  Emperor's 
pride  to  acknowledge  that  he  owed  every  thing  to 
the  French  people.  When  at  the  foot  of  the  Pyre- 
nees, surrounded  by  kings,  and  the  object  of  their 
homage,  he  disposed  of  thrones  and  empires,  he 
claimed  with  energy  the  title  of  first  representative 
of  the  people,  a  title  which  seemed  about  to  be 
given  exclusively  to  members  of  the  legislative 
body.1 

The  imperial  power  alone  was  hereditary.  No 
other  office  in  France  was  hereditary ;  ah1  other 
offices  were  open  to  election  or  merit. 

There  were  two  chambers ;  the  senate  and  the 
legislative  body: 

The  senate,  of  which  the  name  is  more  popular 
than  that  of  the  chamber  of  peers,  was  composed 
of  members  nominated  by  the  electoral  colleges  ; 
one-third  of  them  only  subject  to  appointment  by 
the  Emperor.  It  was  presided  over  by  one  of  the 
members,  Delected  by  the  chief  of  the  state  ;  it 
watched  over  the  Constitution,  it  was  the  protec- 

1  See  the  note  published  by  order  of  the  Emperor  in  the 
Moniteur  of  December  19,  1808. 


QUESTION   OF   THE   INTERIOR.  91 

tor  of  individual  liberty  and  of  the  liberty  of  the 
press.1  The  senate  being,  next  to  the  sovereign, 
the  first  power  of  the  state,  the  Emperor  sought 
to  give  it  the  greatest  weight  and  importance  cir- 
cumstances would  allow ;  for,  when  the  influence 
which  organized  bodies  exert  does  not  follow  the 
order  of  their  political  hierarchy,  it  is  conclusive 
evidence  that  the  Constitution  is  not  in  harmony 
with  public  opinion ;  it  is  hi  such  case  a  machine 
in  which  the  wheels  do  not  work  weU  together. 

Therefore,  to  give  influence  to  the  senate,  the 
idea  of  the  Emperor  was  not  to  make  of  it  simply 
a  tribunal,  or  an  asylum  for  all  the  ministers  whom 
public  opinion  had  condemned ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, to  compose  it  of  all  the  high  excellences, 
and  to  make  it  the  guardian  and  protector  of  all 
the  liberties  of  the  nation.* 


1  M.  Bignon,  in  his  History  of  the  Empire,  expresses  him- 
self as  follows  :  "  The  system  established  was  not  bad  in  itself, 
"  nor  were   the  liberties   of  the  nation  left  entirely  without 
"  guaranties.     If  these  guaranties  are  illusory,  if  the  senato- 
"  rial  commissions  upon  individual  liberty  and  the  liberty  of 
"  the  press  are  to  become  inefficient  and  inactive,  it  is  because 
"  France  is  going  through  an  order  of  events  in  which  ques- 
"  tions  of  domestic  interest  and  private  right  will  inevitably 
"  be  subordinate  to  the  necessities  of  the  executive,  and  to  the 
"  power  of  action  upon  foreign  countries." 

2  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  Emperor  that  an  hereditary 
chamber  could  not  be  established  in  France,  and  that  it  would 
have  no  influence.     He  remarked  in  1815,  to  Benjamin  Con- 
stant, who  was  one  of  the  most  ardent  partisans  of  the  Eng- 


92  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

To  render  the  senators  independent,  and  to 
attach  them  to  the  soil  of  the  provinces,  there  were 
established  in  each  arrondissement  of  the  court  of 
appeals  a  senatorial  estate  returning  to  the  incum- 
bent senator  20,000  to  25,000  francs  income  for 
life. 

The  members  of  the  legislative  body  were  nom- 
inated by  the  electoral  colleges  of  the  departments, 
and  were  paid  during  the  sessions. 

It  is  important  to  call  to  mind  here  the  mode 
of  election  introduced  by  Napoleon.  In  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  year  8,  Sieyes  had  invented  a  sys- 
tem of  representation  by  Notables,  which  deprived 

lish  Constitution:  "Your  Chamber  of  Peers  would  be,  in  a 
"  short  time,  only  a  camp  or  an  ante-chamber." 

The  President  of  the  senate  convoked  the  senate  at  the 
order  of  the  Emperor ;  at  the  request  of  the  senatorial  com- 
missions upon  individual  liberty  and  the  liberty  of  the  press  ; 
or  of  a  senator  for  the  purpose  of  objecting  to  a  decree  of  the 
legislative  body  ;  or  of  an  officer  of  the  senate,  concerning  in- 
ternal affairs  of  the  body. 

Each  of  the  senatorial  commissions  was  composed  of  seven 
members.  Every  person  arrested  and  not  brought  to  trial 
within  ten  days  of  the  time  of  arrest  could  apply  to  this  com- 
mission. 

A  high  imperial  court  was  established  to  take  cognizance 
of  crimes  against  the  internal  safety  of  the  state,  of  misde- 
meanors, and  abuses  of  office  committed  by  ministers  and 
councillors  of  state,  and  of  abuses  of  power  committed  by  the 
imperial  agents,  civil  and  military,  etc. 

The  seat  of  the  high  court  was  in  the  senate  ;  the  arch- 
chancellor  of  the  Empire  presided  over  it ;  the  forms  of  pro- 
cedure were  protective;  the  debates  and  judgments  were  open 
to  the  public. 


QUESTION   OF  THE  INTEEIOK.  93 

the  people  of  all  participation  in  the  elections.  Al- 
though Sieyes,  a  former  member  of  the  Constituent 
Assembly,  of  the  Convention,  and  of  the  Directory, 
was  a  friend  of  liberty,  he  found  himself  compelled 
to  do  this,  by  circumstances,  and  hi  order  to  preserve 
the  Republic;  for,  before  the  18th  Fructidor,  the 
elections  returned  royalists  to*  the  legislative  body ; 
the  18th  Fructidor  drove  them  out.  Then  came 
the  turn  of  the  Jacobins ;  the  28th  Floreal  elimi- 
nated them;  but  in  the  following  elections  they 
appeared  to  maintain  themselves,  and  took  meas- 
ures to  dismiss  their  rivals.  There  was  nothing 
permanent ;  it  was,  each  year,  as  Thibaudeau  him- 
self says,  the  triumph  of  a  party. 

But  the  firm  and  national  march  of  the  Con- 
sulate had  already  created  a  strong  and  compact 
France ;  and  the  vessel  of  state  was  in  less  danger 
of  being  wrecked  upon  one  of  the  two  rocks  which 
were  always  to  be  feared — terror  and  the  ancien 
regime. 

Napoleon,  created  Consul  for  life,  suppressed 
the  lists  of  Notabilities  of  Sieyes,  and  established 
district  assemblies,  composed  of  all  the  citizens 
residing  in  the  district.  These  assemblies  chose 
the  members  of  the  electoral  colleges  of  the  arron- 
dissements  and  of  the  departments.  Those  who 
paid  the  largest  amount  of  taxes  imposed  in  the 
department  were  eligible  to  the  electoral  colleges ; 
but  there  could  be  added  to  the  colleges  of  the  ar- 


94  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

rondissements  ten  members,  and  to  the  colleges 
of  the  departments,  twenty  members  not  proprie- 
tors, selected  from  among  the  members  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor,  or  from  among  those  who  had 
distinguished  themselves  by  services.  The  col- 
leges nominated  two  candidates  for  vacant  places 
in  the  legislative  body ;  the  college  of  the  depart- 
ment alone  nominated  candidates  for  the  places  of 
senators ;  one  of  the  two  candidates  must  be  taken 
from  elsewhere  than  the  college  making  the  nomi- 
nation. 

Examining  the  spirit  which  dictated  these 
laws,  framed  at  an  epoch  when  the  people  were 
emerging  from  violent  discussions,  when  war  was 
always  threatening,  and  when  the  most  sincere 
friend  of  liberty  saw  the  necessity  of  limiting  the 
rights  of  election,  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognize 
that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  Emperor  to  re-es- 
tablish the  elective  system  upon  the  broadest  basis, 
and  the  following  words  of  the  orator  of  govern- 
ment at  that  time,  confirm  this  opinion :  "  The 
"  electoral  colleges  bind  the  high  authorities  and 
"  the  people  reciprocally  to  each  other ;  they  are 
"intermediate  bodies  between  power  and  the 
"  people ;  they  imply  a  classification  of  citizens,  an 
"  organisation  of  the  nation.  In  that  classification 
"  it  was  necessary  to  combine  the  contrary  inter- 
"  ests  of  capitalists  and  proletaires,  because  prop- 
"  erty  is  the  fundamental  basis  of  all  political  asso- 


QUESTION   OF   THE  INTEKIOB.  95 

"elation.  It  was  necessary  also  to  introduce 
"non-proprietors,  in  order  to  keep  open  a  career 
"  to  talent  and  to  genius." 

The  Council  of  State  was  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant wheels  of  the  machinery  of  the  Empire. 
Composed  of  the  most  distinguished  men,  it  formed 
the  privy  council  of  the  sovereign.  Its  members, 
free  from  all  constraint,  not  intent  upon  producing 
an  effect,  and  stimulated  by  the  presence  of  the 
sovereign,  wrought  out  the  laws  without  any  other 
preoccupation  than  the  interests  of  France.  The 
orators  of  the  Council  of  State  were  required  to 
present  for  the  acceptance  of  the  chambers  the 
laws  which  it  had  prepared. 

The  Emperor  created  auditors  of  the  Council 
of  State ;  their  number  was  carried  up  to  three 
hundred  and  fifty;  they  were  divided  into  three 
classes,  and  attached  to  all  branches  of  administra- 
tion. The  Council  of  State  formed  thus  a  nursery 
of  instructed  and  enlightened  men,  capable  of  car- 
rying on  advantageously  the  administration  of  the 
country.  Familiar  with  all  great  political  ques- 
tions, they  received  from  the  government  impor- 
tant missions. 

This  institution  supplied  a  great  want;  for, 
when  a  country  has  schools  of  jurisprudence,  of 
medicine,  of  war,  of  theology,  etc.,  is  it  not  con- 
trary to  reason  that  it  should  not  have  one  for  the 
art  of  governing,  which  is  the  most  difficult  of  all 


96  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

arts,  for  it  embraces  all  the  sciences,  exact,  poli- 
tical, and  moral  ? l 

"  I  prepared  for  my  son,"  said  the  Emperor  at 
Saint  Helena,  "  a  most  advantageous  position.  I 
"  educated  for  him  a  new  school,  the  numerous 
"  class  of  auditors  of  the  Council  of  State.  Their 
"  education  finished,  and  having  come  of  age,  they 
"  would,  some  day,  have  filled  all  the  important 
"  posts  of  the  Empire ;  strong  in  our  principles, 
"  and  in  the  examples  of  our  predecessors,  they 
"would  have  been,  all  of  them,  from  twelve  to 
"  fifteen  years  older  than  my  son ;  which  would 
"have  placed  him  precisely  between  two  gener- 
"  ations  most  advantageously — maturity,  experi- 
"  ence,  and  wisdom  above,  youth  and  activity  be 
"  low." 

The  council  of  disputed  claims  was  instituted  as 
a  special  tribunal,  to  sit  in  trial  upon  cases  concern- 
ing public  functionaries,  and  to  decide  appeals  from 
the  councils  of  the  prefectures,  upon  cases  relating 


1  In  default  of  an  efficient  tribune,  which  the  constitutional 
government  would  have  given  to  France,  never  had  a  sover- 
eign so  enlightened  a  council,  or  one  in  which  all  questions 
concerning  administrative  and  civil  order  were  discussed  with 
more  freedom  and  independence.  In  the  absence  of  that  trib- 
une which  would  have  expressed  public  opinion,  never  did  a 
sovereign  better  divine  the  true  state  of  opinion,  never  did 
any  other  analyze  better  its  character  or  know  better  how  to 
profit  often  by  its  correctness,  sometimes  also  by  its  errors. 
(Thibaudeau.) 


QUESTION   OF  THE  INTEKIOE.  97 

to  the  furnishing  of  subsistence,  to  certain  viola- 
tions of  the  laws  of  the  state,  etc. 

The  desire  of  the  Emperor  to  raise  to  high  con- 
sideration the  political  bodies,  is  manifested  by  the 
creation  of  the  dignity  of  grand  elector;  by  the 
honors  with  which  he  surrounded  the  president  of 
the  legislative  body ;  *  by  the  detailed  exposes  of 
the  state  of  the  Empire  which  he  caused  to  be  laid 
before  the  legislative  body;  by  the  importance 
which  he  imparted  to  the  opening  of  the  sessions. 
Regarding  himself  as  the  first  representative  of  the 
nation,  he  considered  himself  bound  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  his  acts  before  the  constituted  bodies. 
Hence  the  opening  of  the  session  of  the  legislative 
body  was  never,  under  his  reign,  a  vain  ceremony ; 
he  did  not  come  to  seat  himself  upon  a  throne, 
with  all  the  externals  of  a  royalty  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  in  order  to  repeat  stupidly  the  words  of 
his  ministers,  but,  standing  before  the  legislative 
body,  he  communicated  frankly  his  ideas.  It  was 
not  weakness  concealing  itself  under  the  guise  of 
power ;  it  was  power  of  its  own  accord  rendering 
homage  to  the  constituted  bodies  of  the  state. 

Instead  of  influencing  the  elections,  Napoleon 
often  recommended  to  those  around  him  not  to 
offer  themselves  as  candidates  for  the  senate ;  he 
told  them  that  they  could  arrive  at  that  dignity  by 

1  The  president  of  the  legislative  body  had  a  guard  of 
honor. 

5 


98  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

another  road — that  it  was  necessary  to  leave  to  the 
notables  of  the  provinces  the  satisfaction  of  choosing 
for  themselves. 

The  principles  which  guided  the  Emperor  in 
the  choice  of  public  functionaries  were  much  more 
reasonable  than  those  in  use  at  the  present  day. 
When  he  named  the  chief  of  an  administration,  he 
did  not  consult  the  political  shade  of  color  of  the 
man,  but  his  capacity  as  a  functionary.  Thus,  in- 
stead of  inquiring  into  the  political  antecedents  of 
his  ministers,  he  only  required  of  them  the  special 
knowledge  needed.  Chaptal,  a  celebrated  chemist, 
was  charged  with  the  duty  of  opening  new  paths 
for  manufacturing  industry ;  the  learned  Denon 
was  appointed  director  of  the  museum  of  arts ; 
Mollien,  minister  of  the  treasury.  If  the  finances 
of  the  Empire  were  so  prosperous,  it  was  in  a  great 
measure  owing  to  the  fact  that  Gaudin,  Duke  of 
Gae'ta,  entered  the  ministry  of  finances  under  the 
Consulate,  and  continued  in  the  office  until  1814. 

In  order  that  the  road  might  be  open  for  all 
improvements,  the  court  of  cassation  was  charged 
with  the  duty  of  doing  for  the  laws  what  the  Insti- 
tute did  for  the  sciences.  The  court  was  required 
to  present  every  year  a  compte  rendu  of  the  im- 
provements of  which  the  different  branches  of 
legislation  were  susceptible,  and  make  known  the 
faults  and  defects  which  experience  had  demon- 
strated. 


QUESTION   OF  THE   INTERIOR.  99 

One  should  also  observe  that,  in  the  institutions 
of  the  Empire,  there  was  a  continual  movement, 
acting  from  the  circumference  towards  the  centre, 
and  from  the  centre  reacting  towards  the  circum- 
ference, like  the  circulation  of  the  blood  which,  in 
the  human  body,  flows  towards  the  heart,  and  from 
the  heart  reflows  towards  the  extremities.  On  the 
one  hand,  the  people  participate  by  election  in  all 
political  offices;  on  the  other  hand,  the  bodies 
politic  are  presided  over  by  men  appointed  by  the 
central  power.  The  great  dignitaries  of  the  Em- 
pire presided  over  the  electoral  colleges  of  the 
largest  cities ;  the  other  great  civil  officers,  or  the 
members  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  presided  over  the 
other  colleges.1 

The  Councillors  of  State,  on  extraordinary  ser- 
vice, were  sent  into  the  departments  to  watch  over 
the  administration.  They  transmitted  the  plans 
of  the  government,  and  received  the  complaints 
and  the  expressions  of  the  wishes  of  the  people. 
The  senators  who  enjoyed  the  revenues  of  sena- 
torial estates  were  required  to  reside  three  months 
every  year  in  their  arrondissements,  in  order  to 
take  to  them  the  opinion  of  the  centre,  and  bring 
back  to  Paris  the  opinion  of  the  arrondissement. 

The  creation  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  which 

1  Each  electoral  college  terminated  its  session  by  voting 
an  address  to  the  Emperor,  which  was  presented  to  him  by  a 
deputation. 


^ 


100  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

divided  the  French  territory  into  sixteen  arron- 
dissements,  with  the  designation  of  chef-lieu,  was, 
according  to  the  expression  of  the  reporter  of  the 
law,  a  political  institution  which  placed  in  society 
intermediaries  through  whom  the  acts  of  the 
executive  could  be  delivered  to  public  opinion 
with  fidelity  and  benignity,  and  through  whom 
also  public  opinion  could  react  upon  the  executive. 

The  great  benefits  which  were  experienced 
from  the  introduction  of  the  Code  Napoleon  are 
well  known ;  it  had  put  many  branches  of  legisla- 
tion in  harmony  with  the  principles  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  had  much  diminished  litigation  by  bring- 
ing a  multitude  of  cases  within  the  comprehension 
of  every  one.  But  this  code  did  not  respond  fully 
to  the  wishes  of  the  Emperor:  he  projected  a 
universal  or  complete  code,  so  that  there  might  be 
no  other  laws  than  those  inscribed  in  this  code, 
and  that  all  which  was  not  comprised  therein  might 
be  pronounced,  once  for  all,  null  and  void  :  "  for," 
added  he,  "  in  virtue  of  some  old  edicts  of  Chilpe- 
"  ric  or  Pharamond,  dug  up  for  the  occasion,  no 
"  one  can  say  that  he  is  safe  from  being  duly  and 
"legally  hanged." 

To  sum  up  the  imperial  system,  it  may  be  said, 
that  its  basis  is  democratic,  since  all  the  powers  are 
derived  from  the  people ;  whilst  the  organisation 
is  hierarchical,  since  it  provides  different  grades  in 
order  to  stimulate  all  capacities. 


QUESTION    OF  THE   INTEBIOB.  101 

,  Competition  is  opened  to  40,000,000  of  souls ; 
merit  alone  distinguishes  them ;  different  degrees 
of  the  social  scale  reward  them. 

Thus,  politically,  we  have  assemblies  of  the  can- 
ton, electoral  colleges,  the  legislative  body,  the 
council  of  state,  the  senate,  the  great  dignitaries. 

For  the  army ;  every  citizen  is  a  soldier,  every 
soldier  may  become  officer,  colonel,  general,  or 
marshal. 

For  the  Legion  of  Honor ;  all  classes  of  merit 
have  the  same  right — all  services  whether  civil, 
military,  industrial,  ecclesiastical,  or  scientific ;  and 
all  may  obtain  the  grades  of  legionary,  officer,  com- 
mandant, grand  officer,  or  grand  eagle. 

Public  instruction  has  its  primary  schools,  its 
secondary  schools,  its  lyceums,  and  the  Institute 
as  the  head  of  the  edifice. 

Justice  has  its  tribunals  of  first  instance,  its  im- 
perial courts,  and  the  court  of  cassation. 

Finally,  the  administration  of  government  has 
its  mayors,  adjoint-mayors,  sub-prefects,  prefects, 
ministers,  and  councillors  of  state. 

Napoleon  was  then  a  centre  around  which  all 
the  national  forces  grouped  themselves.  He  had 
divided  France  for  purposes  of  administration  into 
communal  arrondissements  and  prefectures ;  politi- 
cally into  electoral  colleges  and  senatorial  estates ; 
defensively,  into  military  divisions ;  judicially,  into 
districts  of  the  imperial  court ;  religiously,  into 


\ 


102  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 


(bishoprics ;  philosophically,  into  lyceum  districts ; 
and  morally,  into  arrondissements  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor. 

T.he  body  politic,  like  the  corps  of  instruction, 
and  like  the  administrative  body,  had  its  feet  in 
the  communes,  and  its  head  in  the  senate. 

The  government  of  the  Emperor  was  then,  to 
use  a  comparison,  a  colossal  pyramid  with  a  broad 
foundation  and  an  elevated  apex. 

If  one,  after  having  surveyed  the  period  from 
1800  to  1814,  turns  his  eyes  to  the  present  epoch, 
he  will  see  that  the  greater  part  of  the  institutions 
founded  by  the  Emperor  still  exist,  and  that  they 
by  their  sole  virtue  have  maintained  the  adminis- 
tration. Although  deprived  of  innate  moving 
power,  France  obeys,  now  for  24  years,  the  im- 
pulse which  Napoleon  gave  her.  But  one  must  not 
judge  of  the  Empire  by  the  false  imitations  which 
we  have  seen ;  people  have  copied  things,  as  if  they 
had  never  understood  the  spirit  which  presided  at 
their  creation.  We  are  indebted  to  two  causes  for 
all  the  prodigies  which,  in  spite  of  wars,  we  have 
seen  produced  under  the  Empire ;  one  of  them 
the  genius  of  the  man, — the  other  the  system 
which  he  established.  Under  the  Empire  all  the 
intelligence,  and  all  the  capacity  of  France  were  call- 
ed upon  to  co-operate  with  one  single  aim,  in  pro- 
moting the  prosperity  of  the  country.  Since  that 
time  all  the  leading  minds  have  been  occupied  only 


QUESTION   OF   THE  rSTEETOE.  103 

in  contending  among  themselves,  and  in  discussing 
which  road  to  follow,  instead  of  making  advances. 
Political  discipline  has  been  broken  up,  and  instead 
of  marching  towards  one  object  in  close  column,  each 
one  has  suddenly  adopted  a  line  of  march  of  his  own, 
and  separated  himself  from  the  body  of  the  army. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  Emperor  was  a  despot. 
It  is  true  that  his  power  was  equal  to  the  work  of 
creation  before  him,  and  in  proportion  with  the 
confidence  of  the  people.  "Under  Napoleon," 
said  General  Foy,  who  certainly  cannot  be  accused 
of  partiality,  "  neither  the  vexations  of  subaltern 
"  pretension,  nor  the  intolerance  of  castes,  nor  the 
"insufferable  domination  of  parties  was  known. 
"  The  law  was  strong,  often  rigid,  but  it  was  equal 
"  for  all."  Napoleon  was  a  despot,  it  is  said ;  yet 
he  never  dismissed  apy  one  from  public  office,  with- 
out an  inquiry,  and  report  of  facts,  and  rarely  ever 
without  hearing  the  accused  functionary:  never 
when  the  questions  involved  were  civil  or  adminis- 
trative. Napoleon  never  took  action  upon  ques- 
tions of  policy  without  a  previous  discussion.1 
Never  before  did  a  sovereign  take  counsel  so  fully 
and  carefully  as  the  Emperor,  for  he  sought  only 
one  thing — the  truth.  Could  he  have  been  a  sys- 
tematic despot,  who,  by  his  codes  and  his  organi- 
sation tended  always  to  replace  the  arbitrary  by 
law?  We  see  him  in  1810  prevent  the  appropria- 
1  Bignon,  voL  v.  p.  168. 


\ 


I 


104  NAPOLEONIC    IDEAS. 

tion  of  private  property  to  public  uses  without  pre- 
vious hearing  and  judgment;1  and  establish  the 
council  of  disputed  claims,  in  order  to  regulate  the 
exercise  of  that  portion  of  arbitrary  power  which 
was  absolutely  necessary  for  the  administration  of 
the  state.  "  I  desire  that  the  state  shall  be  gov- 
"  erned  bylaw,  and  that  whatever  must  necessarily 
"  be  done  without  law  shall  be  legalized  by  the  in- 
"  tervention  of  a  constituted  body." 

We  see  him  also,  in  1810,  show  his  discontent 
that  a  law  concerning  the  press  had  not  been  pre- 
pared,2 and,  what  is  particularly  worthy  of  notice, 
he  repeated  often  these  memorable  words :  "  I  do 
"  not  wish  that  this  power  should  descend  to  my 
"  successors,  because  they  might  abuse  it." 

When  one  reads  history,  he  is  astonished  at  the 
severity  of  the  judgments  pronounced  by  French- 

1  "I  wish  the  fact  of  public  utility  to  be  verified  by  a 
1  senatus  conaultum,  a  law  or  a  decree  deliberated  upon  in  the 
'  Council  of  State ;  and  then  the  disputes  or  claims  which  arise 
'  settled  by  the  tribunals.     I  declare  that  I  cannot  reconcile 
'myself  to  seeing  the  arbitrary  insinuate  itself  everywhere,  and 
'  so  great  a  state  administered  and  governed,  without  oppor- 
'  tunity  of   complaint."     Words  of  the  Emperor  before  the 

Council  of  State. 

2  "  The  press,  which  it  is  pretended  is  free,  is  really  in  a 
"  state  of  absolute  slavery  ;  the  police  allows  works  to  be  pub- 
"  lished  or  suppressed  arbitrarily,  and  the  minister  of  police  does 
"  not  exercise  his  own  judgment ;  he  is  obliged  to  refer  his 
"  decisions  to  his  own  bureaux.    Nothing  can  be  more  irreg- 
"  ular,  more  arbitrary,  than  this  regime."    Words  of  the  Em- 
peror before  the  Council  of  State. 


QUESTION    OF  THE  INTEEIOB.  105 

men  upon  their  own  government,  and  their  indul- 
gence towards  foreign  governments.  Here  is,  for 
example,  the  judgment  which  Carrel  rendered  upon 
the  administration  of  Cromwell ;  and  certainly  the 
English  Protector  ranks  far  below  the  French 
hero  :  "  It  was  fortunate  for  England  that  such  a 
"  man  (Cromwell)  took  upon  himself  the  responsi- 
"  bility  of  performing  unavoidable  acts  of  violence, 
"  because  order  hi  the  place  of  anarchy  was  to 
"  come  from  usurpation,  and  order  was  necessary. 
"Everywhere,  and  in  all  times,  necessities  have 
"  dictated  the  agreements  or  compacts  called  prin- 
"  ciples,  and  principles  are  always  silent  in  the 
"  presence  of  necessities.  There  was  necessity  for 
"  security,  for  repose,  for  a  grandeur  which  should 
"  impose  upon  the  foreign  enemies  of  the  Revolu- 
"  tion,  and  overshadow  commercial  interests  hos- 
"  tile  to  the  interests  of  England.  There  was  ne- 
"  cessity  for  an  administration  which  comprehend- 
"  ed  all  parties  and  committed  itself  to  none ;  which 
"  thoroughly  understood  all  the  ideas  of  the  epoch, 
"  without  making  exclusive  profession  of  any  of 
"  them  ;  which  made  use  of  the  army  without  fol- 
"  lowing  its  lead.  Cromwell  was  right  against  the 
"  royalists,  because  they  were  enemies  of  the  coun- 
"  try ;  against  the  Presbyterians,  because  they  were 
"  intolerant,  and  did  not  understand  the  revolu- 
"  tion  ;  against  the  levellers,  because  they  demand- 
5* 


106  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

"  ed  the  impossible ;  finally,  against  the  fanatical 
"  republicans,  because  they  did  not  comprehend 
"  public  opinion." 1 

Are  not  these  words  a  faithful  explanation  of 
the  reign  of  the  Emperor?  Nevertheless,  one 
hears  some  French  voices  prefer  unjust  accusations, 
repeating,  for  example,  that  the  government  of 
Napoleon  was  the  government  of  the  sword !  If 
that  opinion  could  have  become  general,  there 
would  have  been  occasion  to  exclaim,  with  Mon- 
tesquieu :  "  Woe  to  the  reputation  of  the  prince 
"  who  is  oppressed  by  a  party  which  becomes  dom- 
"  inant,  or  who  has  endeavored  to  destroy  a  preju- 
"  dice  which  survives  him  !  " 

Never,  in  fact,  was  the  internal  administration 
of  power  less  military  in  its  character  than  that  of 
the  Emperor.  In  all  his  acts  we  recognize  the 
tendency  to  give  civil  order  pre-eminence  over 
military  order.  Under  the  imperial  regime,  no 
post  of  civil  administration  was  held  by  military 
men.  He  who  created  civil  dignities  to  balance 
the  dignities  of  the  army ;  who,  by  the  institution 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  wished  to  reward  in  the 
same  manner  the  services  of  the  citizen  and  those 
of  the  soldier ;  who,  from  the  instant  of  his  ac- 
cession to  power,  occupied  himself  with  the  lot  of 

1  History  of  the  Counter-Revolution  in  England,  Introduc- 
tion, page  60. 


QUESTION   OP  THE  INTERIOB.  107 

the  civil  employes  of  government  ;l  who  gave  al- 
ways precedence  to  civil  officers  ;.  who,  in  the  inte- 
rior, and  even  in  conquered  countries,  sent  as  en- 
voys councillors  of  state  clothed  with  an  adminis- 
trative authority  superior  to  that  of  the  generals, — 
such  is  the  man  whom  party  spirit  has  wished  to 
represent  as  the  partisan  of  a  military  regime  !" 

It  has  been  made  a  subject  of  complaint  that 
the  uniform  of  military  discipline  was  introduced 

1  When  Napoleon  arrived  at  power,  the  military  pensions 
were  already  regulated  by  law ;  but  there  was  no  legal  pro- 
vision for  granting  civil  pensions.  As  there  was  no  provision 
for  the  retirement  of  the  functionaries,  they  abused  their 
places.  The  Directory,  not  being  empowered  to  grant  pen- 
sions, granted  an  interest  in  public  transactions,  an  immoral 
state  of  things.  ThibaudeAu,  vol.  iii.  p.  179. 

8  M.  Thibaudeau,  in  his  History  of  the  Consulate,  reporting 
what  the  Emperor  said  to  the  Council  of  State,  namely,  that 
no  man  was  more  a  civilian  than  himself,  adds  :  "  If  the  milita- 
"  ry  were  invested  with  importance  and  consideration,  their 
"  authority  was  rigorously  confined  to  their  natural  sphere ;  its 
"  slightest  encroachments  were  immediately  rigidly  repressed. 
"  The  First  Consul  supported  the  courts  and  the  prefects 
"  against  the  generals.  Citizens  were  subjected  only  to  civil 
"  authority  ;  to  say  the  contrary,  is  to  contradict  evidence." 
Vol.  ii.  p.  213. 

A  general,  loaded  with  testimonials  of  the  favor  of  the 
sovereign,  had  no  power  to  arrest  an  obscure  criminal.  In 
the  conflicts,  sufficiently  numerous,  between  the  military  and 
the  civil  authority,  the  decision  was  almost  always  hi  favor  of 
the  latter.  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  82. 

In  1806,  Junot,  governor  of  Paris,  was  accused  of  breaking 
the  game-law.  He  set  at  defiance  the  authority  of  the  courts. 
He  was  obliged  to  settle  the  matter  to  avoid  an  execution, 
Ibid.  vol.  v.  p.  318. 


108  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

into  the  lyceums.  But  is  it  wrong  to  diffuse  in  the 
nation  a  military  spirit — that  spirit  which  awakens 
the  most  noble  passions,  honor,  disinterestedness, 
patriotism,  and  which  creates  habits  of  order,  reg- 
ularity, and  submission  to  authority?  The  mili- 
tary spirit  is  dangerous  only  when  it  is  the  exclu- 
sive property  of  a  caste.1 

As  to  the  military  uniform,  the  Emperor 
caused  it  to  be  adopted  in  the  lyceums,  and  the 
special  schools,  with  a  view  to  equality.  One  day 
when  he  visited  the  prytanee  of  Saint  Cyr,  his  feel- 
ings were  shocked  at  the  difference  which  existed 
in  the  clothes  of  the  pupils  ;  some  wearing  a 
fashionable  costume,  while  others  were  ragged. 
The  emperor  declared  Jhat  he  would  have  no  dis- 
tinction of  dress  among  the  pupils ;  that  equality 


1  With  the  exception  of  the  manual  exercise  of  arms,  and 
the  exercise  of  platoon-manoeuvring,  in  which  regard  was  had 
to  the  strength  of  the  pupils,  there  was  in  their  studies,  their 
repasts,  their  recreations,  only  the  difference  of  the  substitu- 
tion of  the  drum  for  the  bell.  Choosing  between  these  two 
instruments,  we  give  the  preference  to  the  drum.  The  bell 
suggests  ideas  of  humility  and  abnegation ;  the  drum,  ideas  of 
glory  and  honor.  Under  the  regime  of  the  bell  pupils  were 
flogged ;  corporal  punishments  were  forbidden  under  that  of 
the  drum.  The  members  of  the  lyceums  observed  a  discipline 
and  had  a  careful  dress  and  a  masculine  attitude  which  the 
pupils  of  the  greater  part  of  the  colleges  never  had.  They 
were  imbued,  it  is  said,  with  a  taste  for  arms :  but  were  not 
all  the  youth  of  the  country  subject  to  the  law  of  conscrip- 
tion ?  Thibaudeau. 


QUESTION   OF   THE    lOTEBIOK.  109 

ought  to  be  the  first  element  of  education ;  and  he 
caused  to  be  given  to  all  the  same  uniform. 

Finally,  it  was  a  strange  sort  of  military  gov- 
ernment, one  in  which  the  tranquillity  of  a  vast  em- 
pire was  maintained  without  a  soldier,  while  the 
Emperor  and  the  army  were  eight  hundred  leagues 
from  the  capital ! 1  And,  further,  the  imperial 
eagles,  which  so  many  laurels  had  illustrated,  were  4 
never  defiled  by  French  blood  shed  by  French 
soldiers.  Few  governments  can  say  as  much 'of 
their  flag ! 

The  praise  of  the  Emperor  is  in  his  deeds.  It 
is  sufficient  to  turn  over  the  pages  of  the  Moniteur. 
His  glory  is  like  the  sun :  he  is  blind  who  does  not 
see  it.  Obscure  detractors  cannot  countervail  open 
acts ;  a  few  drops  of  ink  cannot  alter  the  color  of 
the  sea.  Nevertheless,  as  there  are  vulgar  minda 
which  cannot  comprehend  that  which  is  great,  and 
as  in  epochs  of  transition  party  spirit  disfigures 
great  historical  features,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
remind  the  masses,  who  feel  such  admiration  for 

1  No  troops  were  necessary  even  in  the  countries  which 
had  been  annexed.  Piedmont,  Tuscany,  Genoa,  had  not  fifteen 
hundred  soldiers  present.  When  the  Emperor  was  at  Vienna 
there  were  only  twelve  hundred  men  in  the  garrison  of  Paris. 
The  Emperor  drove  in  the  midst  of  the  crowd  which  covered 
the  place  of  the  Carrousel ;  and  in  the  park  of  St.  Cloud  in  an 
open  carriage  with  four  horses,  at  a  walk,  with  the  Empress 
and  a  siugle  page,  in  the  midst  of  150,000  spectators  who  sur- 
rounded his  carriage.  Persons  now  living  saw  him.  Thibau- 
deau,  vol.  8,  p.  176. 


110  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

the  Emperor,  that  their  veneration  is  not  based 
upon"  the  deceitful  show  of  a  vain  glory,  but  upon 
the  just  appreciation  of  actions,  which  had  for  their 
object  the  happiness  of  humanity. 
-***  And  if,  in  the  celestial  region  where  his  great 
soul  now  reposes  in  peace,  Napoleon  could  still  be 
troubled  by  the  agitations  and  the  opinions  which 
are  in  conflict  here  below,  might  not  liis  indig- 
nant shade  thus  answer  his  accusers  ?  "  All  that  I 
"  have  done  for  the  prosperity  of  France,  I  have 
"had  to  accomplish  in  the  intervals  of  battles. 
"But  you,  who  accuse  me,  what  have  you  done 
"  during  twenty-four  years  of  profound  peace?" 

Have  you  reconciled  discords,  and  united  the 
parties  around  the  altar  of  the  country?  Have 
you  distributed  among  the  different  powers  of  the 
state  the  moral  weight  which  the  law  concedes, 
and  which  is  a  pledge  of  stability  ? 

Have  you  given  to  your  chamber  of  peers  the 
democratic  organisation  of  my  Senate  ? 

Have  you  preserved  to  the  Council  of  State  its 
salutary  influence  and  beneficent  functions  ? 

Have  you  preserved  in  the  Legion  of  Honor 
the  purity  and  prestige  of  its  first  organisation  ? 

Have  you  given  to  your  electoral  system  the 
democratic  foundation  of  my  cantonal  assemblies  ? 

Have  you  facilitated  the  access  of  all  to  the 
representative  chamber,  by  assuring  compensation 
to  its  members  ? 


QUESTION   OF  THE   INTEKIOB.  Ill 

Have  you  rewarded  all  merits,  repressed  cor- 
ruption, and  introduced  into  the  administration 
that  severe  and  pure  morality  which  renders 
authority  worthy  of  respect  ? 

Have  you  caused  the  influence  of  power  to  be 
exerted  for  the  improvement  of  manners?  In- 
stead of  diminishing,  have  not  crimes  increased  in 
frequency  ? 

Have  you  secured  property,  by  completing  the 
operation  of  the  book  of  assessments  ? 

Have  you  caused  a  thousand  new  industries  to 
spring  from  the  soil  ? 

Have  you,  during  a  long  peace,  finished  half 
the  works  that  I  commenced  during  severe  wars  ? 

Have  you  opened  new  markets  for  commerce  ? 

Have  you  improved  the  condition  of  the  poorer 
classes  ? 

Have  you  employed  all  the  revennes  of  France 
with  a  single  view  to  her  prosperity  ? 

Have  you  re-established  the  law  of  divorce, 
which  protected  the  morality  of  families  ? 

Have  you  organized  the  national  guard  in  such 
a  manner  that  it  will  be  an  impregnable  barrier 
against  invasion  ? 

Have  you  confined  the  clergy  to  its  religious 
functions,  far  removed  from  political  power  ? 

Have  you  preserved  to  the  army  that  respect 
and  popularity  which  it  had  so  justly  acquired  ? 


112  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

Have  you  not  endeavored  to  degrade  the  noble 
mission  of  the  soldier  ? 

Have  you  granted  to  our  living  relics  of  Wa- 
terloo the  morsel  of  bread  which  belonged  to  them 
as  the  price  of  the  blood  which  they  poured  out 
for  France  ? 

The  tri-color  flag,  and  the  name  of  French- 
man, have  they  preserved  that  prestige  and  influ- 
ence which  caused  them  to  be  respected  through- 
out the  world  ? 

Have  you  secured  to  France  allies  upon  whom 
she  can  count  in  time  of  danger  ? 

Have  you  diminished  the  burdens  of  the  peo- 
pie  ?  Your  taxes  of  peace,  are  they  not  higher 
than  my  taxes  of  war  ?  • 

Finally,  have  you  not  weakened  that  adminis- 
trative centralisation,  which  I  established,  in  order 
to  organize  the  interior,  and  resist  the  foreign  ene- 
mies of  France  ? 

Xo  ;  you  have  preserved  of  my  reign  only  that 
which  was  intended  to  be  temporary  and  transient ; 
and  you  have  rejected  all  the  advantages  which 
palliated  defects ! 

The  benefits  of  peace  you  have  not  obtained ; 
and  all  the  inconveniences  of  war  you  have  suf- 
fered, and  still  suffer,  without  its  great  compensa- 
tions, honor  and  the  glory  of  the  country ! 


CHAPTEE    IV. 

I 

THE   FOREIGN    QUESTION. 

Napoleonic  foreign  policy.— The  different  projects  of  the  Emperor. — 
Benefits  conferred  npon  nations. — Italy,  Switzerland,  Germany, 
Westphalia,  Poland. — His  views  concerning  Spain. 

THERE  are  three  ways  of  regarding  the  rela 
tions  of  France  with  foreign  governments.  They 
may  be  reduced  to  the  three  following  systems  : 

There  is  a  blind  and  passionate  policy,  which 
would  throw  down  the  glove  to  Europe,  and  de- 
throne all  the  kings. 

There  is  another  policy  precisely  opposite, 
which  consists  in  maintaining  peace,  and  purchas- 
ing the  friendship  of  sovereigns,  at  the  expense  of 
the  honor  and  of  the  interests  of  the  country. 

Finally,  there  is  a  third  policy,  which  frankly  I 
offers  the  alliance  of  France  to  all  governments  I 
which  are  willing  to  co-operate  with  her  in  com-  / 
mon  interests. 

Pursuing  the  first,  there  can  be  neither  peace 
nor  truce  ;  pursuing  the  second,  there  is  no  war, 


114  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

but  also  no  independence ;  pursuing  the  third, 
there  is  no  dishonorable  peace,  and  no  universal 
war. 

The  third  system  is  the  Napoleonic  foreign 
policy ;  it  is  that  which  the  Emperor  put  in  prac- 
tice during  the  whole  of  his  career.  If  Napoleon 
fell  notwithstanding,  he  fell  in  virtue  of  causes 
which  we  shall  explain  by  and  by ;  but  that  which 
is  certain  is  that  without  this  policy  he  never  could 
have  successfully  repelled  the  attacks  of  Europe. 
"Rome,"  says  Montesquieu,  "became  great,  be- 
"  cause  her  wars  with  other  nations  were  succes- 
"  sive  ;  each  nation,  by  an  inconceivable  good  for- 
"  tune  attacking  her,  only  after  another  had  been 
"  vanquished." 

That  which  chance  and  fortune  did  for  the  ag- 
grandisement of  Rome,  Napoleon  procured  for 
France  by  his  policy. 

From  1796,  when,  with  30,000  men  he  made 
the  conquest  of  Italy,  he  was  not  only  a  great  gen- 
eral, but  a  profound  political  statesman.  The 
Directory,  in  its  ignorance,  sent  to  General  Bona- 
parte an  order  to  dethrone  the  King  of  Sardinia, 
and  to  march  upon  Rome,  leaving  80,000  Austri- 
ans,  who  issued  from  the  Tyrol,  in  his  rear.  Na- 
poleon disregarded  instructions  so  ill-advised.  He 
formed  an  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  with 
Piedmont,  made  a  treaty  with  the  Pope,  and  beat 
the  Austrians.  The  fruit  of  this  policy  and  con- 


THE  FOREIGN   QUESTION.  115 

duct  was  the  peace  of  Campo-Formio.  Finally, 
after  a  few  years,  Napoleon,  who  shortly  before 
was  chief  of  a  state  which  was  at  war  with  all 
Europe,  united  under  the  tri-colored  flag,  to  march 
upon  Moscow,  Prussians,  Hanoverians,  Dutch, 
Saxons,  Westphalians,  Poles,  Austrians,  Wirtem- 
burgers,  Bavarians,  Swiss,  Lombards,  Tuscans, 
Neapolitans,  and  others. 

By  this  combination  of  all  these  nations,  united 
under  his  orders,  one  may  form  a  judgment  con- 
cerning the  skill  of  the  policy  of  the  Emperor.  If 
he  did  not  succeed  at  Moscow,  it  was  not  because 
his  combinations  were  '  ill  concerted  ;  it  was  be- 
cause fate  and  the  elements  conspired  against  him. 
The  risks,  in  so  great  an  enterprise,  are  in  propor- 
tion to  the  results  expected. 

After  Napoleon  arrived  at  power,  it  was  evi- 
dently necessary  that  he  should  have  a  general 
object  in  view,  but  his  views  were  constantly  modi- 
fied, extended,  or  contracted,  according  to  the 
march  of  events.  "  I  was  not  guilty  of  the  folly," 
said  he,  "  of  desiring  to  bend  events  to  suit  my 
"  system ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  I  bent  my  system 
"  so  as  to  adapt  it  to  events." 

To  secure  the  independence  of  France,  to  es- 
tablish a  solid  European  peace,  such  was  the  ob- 
ject he  had  in  view,  and  which  he  was  so  near 
attaining,  in  spite  of  the  complications  of  events, 
and  the  unceasing  conflict  of  opposite  interests. 


116  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

The  more  the  secrets  of  diplomacy  shall  be  re- 
vealed, the  more  will  the  world  be  convinced  of 
this  truth,  that  Napoleon  was  led  step  by  step — 
through  the  force  of  events  and  things — to  that 
gigantic  power  which  was  created  by  war,  and  by 
war  destroyed.  He  was  not  the  aggressor ;  on 
the  contrary,  he  was  constantly  obliged  to  repel 
the  coalitions  of  Europe.  If  sometimes  he  ap- 
peared to  get  the  start  of  his  enemies,  it  was  be- 
cause the  guaranty  of  success  in  war  consists  in 
taking  the  initiative.  "  And  besides,"  as  Mignet 
has  said,  "  the  true  author  of  a  war  is  not  he  who 
"  declares  it,  but  he  who  renders  it  necessary." 

Let  us  pass  in  rapid  review  the  great  drama 
which  commenced  at  Arcole  and  ended  at  Water- 
loo, and  we  shall  see  that  Napoleon  appears  as  one 
of  those  extraordinary  beings  whom  Providence 
creates  to  be  the  majestic  instrument  of  His  im- 
penetrable designs,  and  whose  mission  is  so  clearly 
defined  in  advance,  that  an  irresistible  power  seems 
to  compel  them  to  fulfil  it. 

After  having  made  the  conquest  of  Italy,  and 
carried  the  torch  of  civilisation  to  the  foot  of  the 
Pyramids — the  place  which  was  its  cradle — he  re- 
turned to  Europe,  and  by  the  battle  of  Marengo 
obtained  peace,  of  which  France  stood  in  great 
need.  But  this  peace  was  of  too  short  duration ; 
England  wished  war.  It  seems  as  though  the  two 
most  civilized  nations  were  employed  by  Provi- 


THE  FOREIGN  QUESTION".  117 

dence  to  enlighten  the  world,  one  in  exciting  na- 
tions against  France,  the  other  in  conquering  in 
order  to  regenerate  them.  At  one  moment  the  two 
giants  stood  face  to  face  ;  there  was  but  a  narrow 
strait  between  them,  They  appeared  about  to 
struggle  for  the  mastery,  body  to  body ;  but  such 
was  not  the  decree  of  fate.  The  genius  of  civilisa- 
tion of  the  age  was  destined  to  march  towards  the 
East.  People  of  Illyria  and  of  Carinthia,  of  the 
Danube  and  of  the  Spree,  of  the  Elbe  and  of  the 
Vistula,  you  saw  her  and  followed  her  laws ;  vic- 
torious, she  received  your  worship ;  you  then  hated 
her,  but,  after  her  disappearance,  only  to  regret  and 
bless  her ! 

Every  coalition  which  was  formed  increased  the 
preponderance  of  France,  for  the  God  of  battles 
was  with  us  ;  and  the  power  of  Napoleon  grew  in 
proportion  with  the  hatred  of  his  enemies.  Our 
allies  derived  advantage  from  our  conquests.  In 
1805,  France  had  for  allies  Prussia,  the  little  states 
of  Germany,  Italy,  and  Spain.  The  victories  of 
Ulm  and  Austerlitz  gave  Hanover  to  Prussia, 
Venice  to  Italy,  the  Tyrol  to  Bavaria.  Prussia 
detached  herself  from  the  French  alliance,  and 
Napoleon  was  compelled  to  subdue  her  at  Jena.1 

1  It  will  be  asked  one  day  why  Napoleon,  in  the  six  last 
years  of  his  reign,  showed  himself  without  pity  for  Prussia ;  it 
vas  because  Prussia  was  the  power  which  injured  him  most  by 
compelling  him  to  contend  with  and  destroy  her ;  her,  whom 


118  NAPOLE01STC  IDEAS. 

The  creation  of  the  kingdom  of  Westphalia  was  a 
consequence  of  the  dismemberment  of  Prussia,  and 
of  the  victories  of  Eylau  and  Friedland.  A  glimpse 
of  a  future  of  peace  was  caught  at  Tilsit.  The  two 
most  powerful  monarchs  of  the  world,  representing 
80,000,000  of  men,  and  the  civilisation  of  the  East 
and  the  West,  met  upon  a  river  which  separated 
interests  of  the  greatest  magnitude.  The  interview 
between  Alexander  and  Napoleon  upon  the  Nie- 
men,  was,  then,  for  Europe,  like  the  union  of  the 
two  voltaic  poles,  which,  from  the  difference  of 
their  nature,  produce,  when  they  meet,  the  electric 
light.  How  was  it  possible  not  to  believe  in  a  bril- 
liant future  of  prosperity,  when  these  two  great 
monarchs  agreed  upon  assuring  the  repose  of  the 
world  ?  Napoleon,  in  1808,  found  himself  at  Er- 
furth,  in  the  midst  of  a  congress  of  kings,  who  had 
been  conquered  or  convinced ;  but  England  was 
'neither  conquered  nor  convinced ;  her  fleets  hov- 
ered upon  every  shore,  and  her  gold  weighed 
heavy  in  the  scales  of  treaties.  1809  saw  a  new 
coalition ;  it  was  dissolved  at  Eckmuhl  and  Wag- 
ram.  The  French  eagle  soared  over  Bremen,  Lu- 
beck,  and  Hamburg.  Bavaria  obtained  the  prov- 
ince of  Salzbourg.  Illyria  became  a  portion  of 
the  great  empire. 

he  desired  to  enlarge,  fortify  and  aggrandize,  in  order  to  se- 
cure by  her  co-operation  the  immobility  of  Russia  and  Austria, 
to  give  to  the  continental  system  an  uncontested  development, 
and  thus  force  England  to  make  and  keep  peace.  Bignon. 


THE  FOREIGN   QUESTION.  119 

The  views  of  Napoleon  were  extended  as  the 
field  of  his  exploits  was  enlarged ;  events  put  him 
in  a  position,  which  enabled  him  to  contemplate 
the  regeneration  of  Europe.  The  great  difficulty 
for  Napoleon  was,  not  to  conquer,  but  to  dispose 
of  his  conquests.  As  sovereign  of  France  he  was 
bound  to  make  use  of  them  in  a  French  interest ; 
as  a  great  man,  in  a  European  interest.  That  is 
to  say,  it  was  necessary  that  his  conquests  should 
satisfy  the  temporary  interests  of  war,  at  the  same 
time  that  they  should  furnish  the  means  of  establish- 
ing a  system  of  general  peace.  The  provinces  which 
he  incorporated  with  France  were  only  so  many 
media  of  exchange,  so  many  counters,1  which  he 
held  in  reserve  until  a  definitive  settlement  of 
peace.  But  inasmuch  as  such  incorporations  gave 
rise  to  suspicions  of  a  desire  to  establish  a  univer- 
sal monarchy,  he  founded  kingdoms,  which  had  an 
appearance  of  independence,  and  elevated  his 
brothers  to  thrones,  in  order  that  they  might  form 
in  the  different  countries  the  pillars  of  a  new  edi- 
fice, and  unite  the  appearance  of  permanency  with 
the  substantial  power  of  change.  They  alone, 
although  kings,  would  be  subject  to  his  will, 
and  would  decide  according  to  the  decrees  of  his 

1  "  Illyria  was  but  an  advanced  sentinel  at  the  gates  of 
"  Vienna ;  I  will,  by-and-by,  restore  it  for  Gallicia."  Words 
of  Napoleon.  He  said  to  a  deputation  from  Berlin  in  1807  : 
"  I  have  not  desired  war ;  I  am  satisfied  with  the  boundary  of 
"the  Rhine." 


120  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

policy,  to  quit  their  thrones  and  become  again 
French  princes ;  they  united  the  apparent  inde- 
pendence of  royalty  with  a  real  dependence  of 
family.  Thus  the  Emperor  was  seen  to  change, 
according  to  circumstances,  the  governments  of 
Holland,  of  Naples,  of  Lombardy,  of  Spain,  and  of 
the  grand-duchy  of  Berg. 

It  was  a  fatality  for  Napoleon,  to  be  obliged  to 
create  so  many  new  kingdoms :  they  therefore  are  in 
error,  who  have  said  that  he  ought,  in  view  of  his 
own  interests,  to  have  dethroned  the  sovereigns 
of  Prussia  and  of  Austria,  when  he  occupied  their 
capitals.  The  Emperor  by  so  doing  would  only 
have  increased  his  embarrassments  and  the  num- 
ber of  his  enemies,  for  those  sovereigns  were  be- 
loved by  their  subjects — and,  besides,  whom  could 
he  put  in  their  places?  Men  beyond  the  Rhine 
do  not  like  governments  imposed  by  us,  any  better 
than  we  like  those  which  enemies  impose  upon  us. 
Remember  that  in  1808  Napoleon  thought  it  ne- 
cessary to  change  the  dynasty  of  a  great  nation. 
That  dynasty  had  so  degenerated,  that  it  approved 
of  its  own  removal.  The  country,  whose  lot  she 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Emperor,  was  that  for 
the  regeneration  of  which  French  influence  was 
the  most  necessary;  nevertheless,  all  Spain  rose 
to  reclaim  the  monarch  whom  a  foreign  power 
had  taken  away. 

The  Emperor  conciliated,  then,  as  far  as  was 


THE  FOREIGN   QUESTION.  121 

possible,  temporary  interests,  and  transient  exi- 
gencies with  his  great  object,  a  resettlement  of 
Europe  upon  the  basis  of  the  interests  of  all.  But 
fate  seemed  always  to  force  him  into  new  wars ;  and, 
as  if  it  was  not  enough  that  he  had  liberated  from 
the  trammels  of  past  ages  Italy,  Switzerland,  and 
Germany,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  conduct 
his  armies  under  the  burning  sky  of  Andalusia, 
and  through  the  snows  of  Russia,  and  that  his 
legions,  like  those  of  Ca?sar,  should  even  in  dying 
leave  as  traces  of  their  passage  the  germs  of  a  new 
civilisation.  In  1812,  the  contest  became  more 
terrible.  In  order  that  general  peace  might  be 
established  and  consolidated,  it  was  necessary  that 
England  in  the  west,  and  Russia  in  the  east,  should 
be  persuaded  by  reason,  or  subdued  by  victory. 
The  great  designs  of  the  Emperor  were  about  to 
be  accomplished ;  the  West  of  Europe  marched 
upon  Moscow.  But  alas!  a  winter  changed  all! 
Napoleonic  Europe  could  no  longer  exist.  From 
the  grandeur  of  the  failure,  form  an  idea  of  the 
gigantic  result  of  success!  It  was  no  longer  a 
question  of  combining  and  founding ;  it  was  neces- 
sary for  the  Emperor  to  defend  and  protect  France 
and  her  allies.  The  field  of  battle  was  transferred 
from  the  banks  of  the  B6r6sina  to  the  foot  of 
Montmartre.  Peace !  peace !  cried  the  cowards, 
who  until  then  had  been  silent.  But  the  soul  of 
the  Emperor  was  inaccessible  to  pusillanimous 
6 


122  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

counsels.  Although  his  body  bled  in  every  part, 
Death,  he  exclaims,  rather  than  a  shameful  peace! 
death,  rather  than  be  Emperor  of  a  France  smaller 
than  I  received ! 

The  lightning  flashed  once  more! — but  soon 
came  "Waterloo!  Here  every  French  voice  is 
choked,  and  finds  no  longer  any  thing  but — tears ; 
tears  for  the  vanquished,  and  tears  for  the  victors, 
who  will  sooner  or  later  regret  the  overthrow  of 
the  only  man  who  could  mediate  between  two 
hostile  ages ! 

All  our  wars  were  attributable  to  England.  She 
never  would  listen  to  any  propositions  of  peace. 
Did  she  believe  that  the  Emperor  desired  her  ruin  ? 
He  never  entertained  such  a  thought.  He  did  but 
make  reprisals.  The  Emperor  esteemed  the  Eng- 
lish people,  and  to  secure  peace  would  have  made 
every  sacrifice — except  such  as  would  compromise 
his  honor.  In  1800,  the  first  Consul  wrote  to  the 
King  of  England  :  "  Shall  the  war,  which  for  eight 
"  years  has  ravaged  the  four  quarters  of  the  earth, 
"  be  eternal  ?  Is  there  no  way  of  coming  to  an 
"understanding?  How  can  the  two  most  en- 
"  lightened  nations  of  Europe,  each  more  power- 
"  ful  than  is  necessary  for  its  safety  and  independ- 
"  ence,  sacrifice  to  ideas  of  vain-glory,  the  welfare 
"  of  commerce,  internal  prosperity,  and  the  happi- 
"  ness  of  families  ?  How  is  it,  that  they  do  not 


THE  FOREIGN  QUESTION.  123 

"  feel  that  peace  is  the  first  of  necessities,  as  it  is 
"  the  first  of  glories  ?  " 

In  1805,  the  Emperor  addressed  to  the  same 
sovereign  the  following  words:  "The  world  is 
"  large  enough  for  two  nations  to  live  in,  and  rea- 
"  son  is  abundantly  able  to  find  the  ways  of  con- 
"  ciliating  every  thing,  if  only  there  is  on  both 
"  sides  the  will.  Peace  is  the  wish  of  my  heart, 
"  but  war  has  never  been  contrary  to  my  glory. 
"I  conjure  your  Majesty  not  to  deny  himself  the 
"  happiness  of  voluntarily  granting  peace." 

In  1808,  Napoleon  united  with  Alexander  to 
bring  over  the  British  Cabinet  to  ideas  of  con- 
ciliation. 

Finally,  in  1812,  when  the  Emperor  was  at  the 
apogee  of  his  power,  he  made  again  the  same 
propositions  to  England.  He  always  sued  for 
peace  after  a  victory,  never  after  a  defeat.  "  A 
"  nation,"  said  he,  "  can  replace  men  more  easily 
"  than  honor." 

It  would  be  too  sad  an  idea  to  think  that  war 
had  been  kept  up  only  through  the  revengeful 
passions,  or  the  interests  of  parties.  If  an  obsti- 
nate contest  continued  for  so  long  a  time,  it  was 
doubtless  because  the  two  nations  understood  each 
other  too  little,  and  each  government  erred  as  to 
the  real  condition  of  its  neighbor.  England  saw, 
perhaps,  in  Napoleon  only  a  despot,  who  oppresses 
his  country,  and  exhausts  all  her  resources  to 


124  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

gratify  his  warlike  ambition ;  she  could  not  recog- 
nize that  the  Emperor  was  the  elect  of  the  people, 
of  whom  he  represented  all  the  interests,  material 
and  moral,  for  which  France  had  contended  since 
1789.  It  may  also  be  held  that  the  French  gov- 
ernment, confounding  the  enlightened  aristocracy 
of  England  with  the  feudal  aristocracy  which 
weighed  upon  France  before  the  Revolution, 
thought  that  it  was  dealing  with  an  oppressive 
government.  But  the  English  aristocracy  is  like 
the  Briareus  of  fable.  It  has  a  hold  upon  the  people 
by  a  hundred  thousand  roots.  It  obtained  from 
them  as  many  sacrifices  as  Napoleon  obtained 
efforts  from  the  French  nation.  And  it  is  worthy 
of  notice  in  the  contest  between  these  two  coun- 
tries, that  the  rivalry  of  England  placed  Napoleon  at 
one  time  in  a  position  to  realize  against  that  power 
a  European  project,  similar  to  that  which  Henry 
IV.  would  have  put  in  execution  against  Spain,  if 
the  steel  of  a  base  assassin  had  not  deprived  France 
and  Europe  of  that  great  monarch. 

We  shall  return,  in  another  chapter,  to  a  con- 
sideration of  the  morality  of  the  end  which  the 
Emperor  designed  to  attain.  Let  us  examine  now 
the  principal  improvements  which  he  introduced 
into  foreign  countries.  Very  differently  from  other 
governments,  which  have  always  treated  the  prov- 
inces they  have  acquired  like  conquered  countries, 
the  Emperor  caused  all  the  nations  of  which  he 


THE  FOREIGN  QUESTION.  125 

was  master  to  participate  in  the  benefits  of  an 
enlightened  administration;  and  the  countries 
which  he  incorporated  with  France,  enjoyed  from 
that  instant  the  same  prerogatives  as  the  mother 
country.  When  he  gave  crowns,  he  imposed 
always  two  conditions  upon  the  king  whom  he  ap- 
pointed ;  the  inviolability  of  the  constitution,  and 
the  guaranty  of  the  public  debt. 

In  Italy,  he  formed  a  great  kingdom,  which 
had  its  separate  administration  and  its  Italian 
army.  All  the  administrative  and  judicial  offices 
were  filled  by  natives.  The  troops  were  no  longer 
composed  of  mercenaries  and  the  dregs  of  the 
population.  Every  man  was  called  upon  to  defend 
his  country :  the  army  became  citizen.  The  sover- 
eign could  no  longer  dip,  according  to  his  caprice, 
into  the  public  treasury;  he  had  his  civil  list. 
Feudalism,  tithes,  mortmains,  and  monastic  orders 
were  destroyed;  a  constitutional  statute  estab- 
lished three  colleges:  1st,  proprietors;  2d,  those 
engaged  in  commerce;  3d,  the  learned.  There 
were  added  to  the  first  two  colleges  which  re- 
quired for  admissibility  the  qualification  of  the 
payment  of  a  certain  amount  of  imposts,  a  third 
college,  free  from  that  requisition,  composed, 
under  the  name  of  College  of  Savants,  of  two  hun- 
dred citizens  chosen  from  among  the  most  celebrated 
men  of  all  branches  of  science,  or  of  the  liberal  or 
mechanic  arts,  or  from  among  those  who  had  most 


126  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

distinguished  themselves  whether  by  their  doctrines 
in  ecclesiastical  matters,  or  by  their  acquisitions  in 
legislation,  morals,  politics,  or  administration. 

The  citizens  were  organized  into  a  national 
guard.  The  country,  divided  into  departments, 
and  administered  by  prefectures  and  sub-prefec- 
tures, lost  that  provincial  spirit  which  is  the 
death  of  nationality.  New  laws  concerning  prop- 
erty and  mortgages  simplified  administration  and 
enriched  the  country.  Agriculture,  the  sciences, 
and  the  arts,  were  encouraged.  The  French  Code 
was  introduced,  and  publicity  of  proceedings  in 
criminal  matters  was  declared.  Houses  of  industry 
were  erected  in  several  cities  to  put  an  end  to 
mendicity.  Convents'  were  converted  into  hos- 
pitals, justices  of  the  peace  were  appointed,  and 
the  decimal  system  of  money,  weights,  and  meas- 
ures was  established.  Public  instruction  was  reg- 
ulated by  a  law  which  divides  it,  economically, 
into  three  degrees — national,  departmental,  and 
communal;  and  scientifically  likewise  into  three 
degrees — transcendental,  intermediate,  and  ele- 
mentary. Above  all  stood  the  National  Institute. 
The  Italian  concordat  protected  the  temporal 
power  from  encroachments  of  the  ecclesiastical 
power.  The  various  bonds  of  the  people  of  Italy 
were  drawn  closer  by  more  easy  means  of  com- 
munication. The  Alps  were  levelled,  and  the 
Apennines,  cut  by  new  routes,  united  Piedmont 


THE  FOREIGN  QUESTION.  127 

to  the  Mediterranean.  Italian  glory  awoke,  and 
for  the  first  time  since  Caesar,  Italian  legions  were 
seen  to  tread  as  conquerors  the  soil  of  Spain.  The 
name  of  Italy,  so  beautiful,  dead  for  so  many  ages, 
was  restored  to  provinces  which,  until  then,  had 
been  severed.  That  name  implies  in  itself  a  future 
of  independence.1 

Napoleon  put  an  end  to  those  little  republics, 
which,  as  Montesquieu  has  said,  owed  their  exist- 
ence only  to  the  perpetuity  of  their  abuses.  From 
the  Alps  to  Otranto  there  were  but  three  great  di- 
visions :  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  the  kingdom  of 
Naples,  and  the  French  provinces.  Napoleon  had 
united  to  the  French  empire  Piedmont,  as  well  as 
Rome  and  Florence,  for  the  purpose  of  habituating 
their  people  to  a  government  which  makes  the  in- 
habitants citizens  and  soldiers.  The  wars  at  an 
end,  he  would  have  restored  them  to  the  mother 
country ;  and  these  provinces,  invigorated  by  his 
authority,  would  have  passed  by  an  easy  transition 
from  French  dominion  to  an  Italian  government ; 
while,  if  this  organisation  had  been  more  hasty,  the 
people,  not  having  been  prepared  by  French  ac- 
tion for  a  common  nationality,  would  doubtless 

1  In  receiving  the  Italian  deputation  which  brought  him  the 
crown  of  Italy,  Napoleon  replied  in  public  to  M.  Melzi :  "  I  have 
"always  intended  to  create  the  Italian  nation  free  and  inde' 
"  pendent.  I  accept  the  crown,  and  will  keep  it — but  only  so 
"  long  as  my  interests  render  it  necessary."  See  Botta,  book 
22,  p.  6. 


128  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

have  regretted    their  ancient  political   individu- 
ality. 

Switzerland,  given  up  to  civil  war,  to  the  ter- 
rors of  anarchy,  and  at  the  same  time  to  the  en- 
croachments of  the  aristocracy,  was  all  at  once 
pacified  by  the  mediation  of  Napoleon.  He  called 
before  him  the  representatives  of  Helvetia,  opposed 
the  opinion  of  those  who  desired  liberty  for  certain 
cantons  only,  and  dependence  for  the  rest ;  and 
having  fully  discussed  the  interests  of  each,  he 
made  them  adopt  a  constitution  which,  while  it 
consecrated  the  principles  of  liberty  and  justice, 
preserved  of  the  preceding  regime  all  which  was 
not  incompatible  with  those  principles.  The  chief 
articles  of  the  act  of  mediation  were  :  1st,  Equal- 
ity of  rights  among  the  nineteen  cantons  ;  2d,  The 
voluntary  surrender  of  privileges  on  the  part  of 
patrician  families;  3d,  A  federal  organisation,  in 
virtue  of  which  each  canton  was  organized  accord- 
ing to  its  language,  its  religion,  its  customs,  its  in- 
terests, and  its  opinions.  Accordingly  Switzerland, 
which  is  indebted  to  the  act  of  mediation  for 
twelve  years  of  quiet  and  prosperity,  has  always 
preserved  its  gratitude  to  the  mediator. 

Southern  Germany,  liberated  from  the  yoke  of 
the  Germanic  empire,  beheld  civilisation  advancing 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Code  Napoleon,  and  in- 
stead of  being  cut  up  into  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
four  states,  she  saw  their  number  reduced  to  thirty- 


THE  FOREIGN  QUESTION.  129 

one  by  the  establishment  of  the  Confederation  of 
the  Rhine.1 

1  Seigniories  and  sovereignties  of  ancient  Germany  having 
a  voice  in  the  Diet,  and  rights  of  legislation  and  jurisdiction 
in  their  territories : 

Electors,        .....         9 
Lay  Princes,        ....  61 

Ecclesiastical  Princes,  .  .  .83 

Abbots  and  Abbeys  with  seigneurial  rights,       41 
Counts  and  Seigniors  of  the  Empire, — 

In  Wetteravia,   .  .  .16 

In  Swabia,    ...  28 

In  Franconia,      .  .  .17 

In  Westphalia,         .  .  33 

Sovereigns,       233 
Republics,          61 

Total,    284  States. 

The  decree  of  Ratisbonne  (1803),  the  first  act  of  the  Ger- 
manic empire,  drawn  up  under  the  influence  of  Napoleon, 
reduced  these  States  to  the  number  of  147  : 

Electors,        .  .  .  .  .10 

Seigniors  having  a  voice  in  the  Diet,      .          131 
Free  Cities,  ....          6 

~147 

By  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  Napoleon  mediatized 
all  these  princes ;  there  remained  only  31  States : 
Kings,  .  .  .  .  .4 

Elector  Arch-chancellor,  .  .  1 

Grand  Dukes,  ....        3 

Landgrave,         .  .  .  .  1 

Princes,         .  .  .  .  .11 

Dukes,    .....  16 

Count,  .....        1 

Total,    31  States. 
6* 


130  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

Westphalia,  another  germ  of  regeneration,  seated 
upon  the  Elbe,  composed  of  provinces  which  suffered 
all  the  abuses  of  feudalism,  received  institutions 
which  consecrated  the  equality  of  all  citizens  before 
the  law,  and  suppressed  every  industrial  privilege 
and  every  kind  of  serfdom.  The  introduction  of 
the  civil  code,  and  the  publicity  of  trials  by  jury  in 
criminal  matters,  were  ameliorations  for  which  the 
French  regime  must  be  credited.  The  fiefs  were 
declared  free  properties,  providing,  however,  for 
reversion  to  the  crown  in  case  of  default  of  heirs. 
Prospective  arrangements  were  made  to  prevent 
the  suits  which  might  arise  in  consequence  of  the 
abolition  of  serfdom.  The  purchase  of  rents  and 
of  feudal  reservations  was  regulated  by  a  law. 
All  religions  enjoyed  equal  liberty;  the  Jewish 
worship  had  its  consistory. 

In  Bavaria,  the  King  Maximilian  granted  in 
1808  a  constitution  which  secured  the  liberties  of 
the  people,  and  destroyed  feudal  privileges. 

In  the  grand-duchies  of  Baden  and  of  Berg,  as 
in  the  lands  of  Erfurth,  Fulde,  Hanau  and  Bay- 
reuth,  the  influence  of  the  Emperor  caused  to  be 
abolished,  in  1808,  serfdom,  the  cultivators'  tax, 
and  the  fees  derived  therefrom  to  the  profit  of 
the  seigniors.  The  serfs  and  cultivators  obtained 
complete  civil  rights,  and  the  right  of  holding 
property. 

Liberty  of  conscience  did  not  exist  in  Saxony : 


THE  FOREIGN  QUESTION.  131 

the  Emperor  caused  it  to  be  declared  in  the  con- 
stitution of  that  country  in  1806. 

Poland,  that  sister  of  France  always  so  devoted, 
so  magnanimous,  may  hope  for  a  resurrection  not 
long  to  be  delayed,  for  the  Emperor  erected  the 
duchy  of  Warsaw  as  a  nucleus  for  a  complete 
nationality.  The  constitution  of  this  new  duchy 
abolished  slavery,  consecrated  the  principle  of 
equality  of  rights,  and  placed  under  the  safeguard 
of  the  tribunals  the  social  state  of  all  persons.  It 
introduced  the  French  civil  code.  The  King  of 
Saxony  was  elected  as  sovereign  of  Warsaw,  be- 
cause he  was  a  descendant  of  princes  who  had 
reigned  over  Poland.  He  had  near  him,  in  his 
character  of  grand-duke  of  Warsaw,  a  council  of 
state,  composed  of  the  most  distinguished  Poles. 
A  constitutional  statute  was  decreed,  which  as- 
sured the  privileges  and  liberties  of  the  people. 
The  general  diet  was  composed  of  two  chambers, 
that  of  the  senate  and  that  of  the  nuncios.  The 
diet  voted  the  taxes  and  discussed  the  laws. 
Finally,  as  has  been  said  by  M.  Bignon,  in  a  work 
of  which  the  patriotism  rivals  the  talent,  a  tribune 
was  erected  at  Warsaw  in  the  midst  of  the  silent 
atmospheres  of  neighboring  governments. 

Although  the  Emperor  had  it  in  his  power  to 
dispose  arbitrarily  of  the  destiny  of  so  many 
nations,  he  allowed  them  always  to  co-operate  in 
framing  the  laws  which  he  gave  them.  His  con- 


132  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

duct  was  the  same  in  regard  to  all  the  countries, 
the  old  governments  of  which  he  changed.  In 
1 800,  he  invited  the  deputies  of  northern  Italy  to 
come  to  Lyons,  and  discussed  with  them  the  con- 
stitution which  should  govern  them.1 

In  1805,  another  extraordinary  council  was 
called  together  at  Paris  to  constitute  the  king- 
dom  of  Italy.  In  Holland,  the  legislative  body 
of  the  country  was  charged  with  the  duty  of  fram- 
ing the  constitution.  For  Switzerland,  the  act  of 
mediation  was  in  like  manner  the  work  of  the 
deputies  of  the  cantons  assembled  at  Paris. 

The  system  of  the  Emperor,  which  consisted  in 
calling  near  him  the  most  distinguished  persons  of 
a  country,  in  order  to  work  out  its  regeneration, 
having  procured  so  happy  results  for  Switzerland 
and  Italy,  Napoleon  resolved,  in  1808,  to  apply  it 
to  Spain,  which,  more  than  any  other  nation, 
needed  a  political  reorganisation. 

The  Emperor  did  not  go  to  Bayonne  with  the 
intention  of  dethroning  the  kings  of  Spain ;  but 
when  he  saw  Charles  IV.  and  Ferdinand  at  his 
feet,  and  could  judge  for  himself  of  their  complete 
incapacity,  he  pitied  the  lot  of  a  great  people,  and, 

1  This  extraordinary  council  comprised  all  the  notabilities 
of  the  republic,  the  clergy,  the  magistracy,  the  administra- 
tions of  the  departments  and  of  the  principal  cities,  the  cham- 
bers of  commerce,  the  academies  and  the  universities,  the 
national  guards,  and  the  troops  of  the  line.  All  classes  and 
all  professions  sent  their  representatives. 


THE  FOREIGN  QUESTION.  133 

as  he  said  himself,  he  seized  by  the  forelock  the 
opportunity  which  fortune  presented  him  of  recon- 
stituting Spain,  and  of  uniting  her  intimately  with 
his  system.  He  assembled  at  Bayonne  an  extra- 
ordinary- national  junta,  composed  of  deputies 
elected  by  all  the  provinces.  A  plan  of  constitu- 
tion was  opened  to  the  free  discussion  of  the  junta ; 
this  plan  provided  for  a  senate,  a  council  of  state, 
the  cortes  or  assemblies  of  the  nation  divided  into 
three  bans;  he  adopted  the  judicial  system  of 
France ;  equality  in  payment  of  imposts,  and  in 
admission  to  public  employments,  was  guarantied ; 
entails  were  diminished ;  liberty  of  the  press  was 
authorized,  to  take  effect  two  years  after  the  adop- 
tion of  the  constitution;  finally,  that  charter  se- 
cured all  the  rights  which  the  Spanish  people  de- 
sired, and  put  an  end  to  all  the  old  abuses,  such  as 
the  inquisition,  feudal  privileges,  etc.1  In  commu- 
nicating to  the  people  of  the  peninsula  his  inten- 
tions, the  Emperor  addressed  them  in  these  beau- 
tiful words  :  "  Spaniards !  after  long  agony  your 
"  nation  is  on  the  verge  of  dissolution.  I  have  wit- 

1  Upon  arriving  at  Madrid,  the  Emperor  abolished  the  in- 
quisition. He  reduced  the  convents,  at  the  same  time  pro- 
viding an  honorable  subsistence  for  the  monks,  and  increasing 
the  salaries  of  the  country  curates.  He  suppressed  the  feudal 
rights  and  personal  services.  He  transferred  the  custom-houses 
to  the  frontiers.  Finally,  the  alienation  by  gift  of  certain  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  impositions  was  revoked,  and  all  seigneurial 
jurisdiction  was  abolished.  Bignon,  vol.  viii.  p.  54. 


134  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

"  nessed  your  sufferings,  and  bring  you  a  remedy.  I 
"  do  not  wish  to  reign  over  your  land,  but  I  desire  to 
"  acquire  an  eternal  right  to  the  love  and  gratitude 
"  of  your  posterity.  Your  monarchy  is  decrepit ; 
"  I  will  renew  its  youth.  I  will  improve  your  in- 
"  stitutions,  and,  if  you  will  second  me,  enable 
"  you  to  enjoy  the  benefits  of  a  reform  without 
"  violence,  disorder,  or  convulsion.  Spaniards !  I 
"  have  convoked  a  general  assembly  of  delegates 
"  from  the  provinces  and  the  cities.  I  desire  to 
"  assure  myself,  personally,  of  your  wants  and  your 
"  wishes ;  I  will  then  place  your  glorious  crown 
"  upon  the  head  of  another  self,  promising  you  a 
"  constitution  which  reconciles  the  gentle  and  salu- 
"  tary  authority  of  the  sovereign  with  the  liberty 
"  and  privileges  of  the  people ;  for  I  desire  that 
"  your  latest  children  shall  preserve  my  memory, 
"  and  say,  He  was  the  regenerator  of  our  country." 

But  no  nation  was  less  prepared  than  Spain  to 
undergo  a  social  revolution.  She  was  deaf  to  this 
noble  language,  and  rejected  the  only  hand  which 
could  save  her.  At  the  present  time  she  ought  to 
feel  regrets  all  the  more  bitter,  since  the  terrible 
prediction  of  the  Emperor  at  Saint  Helena  is  being 
accomplished  :  "I  would  have  spared  them,"  said 
he,  "  the  dreadful  tyranny  which  tramples  them 
"  under  foot,  and  the  fearful  agitations  which  await 
"  them ! " 

If  war  is  the  scourge  of  humanity,  this  scourge 


THE  FOREIGN  QUESTION.  135 

loses  a  great  part  of  its  unhappy  influence  when  the  / 
force  of  arms  is  called  to  found,  not  to  destroy. 
The  wars  of  the  Empire  have  been  like  the  over- 
flow of  the  Nile :  when  the  waters  of  the  river 
cover  the  fields  of  Egypt,  one  would  imagine  that 
the  country  was  laid  waste  ;  but  hardly  have  the 
waters  retired,  before  they  are  followed  by  fertility 
and  abundance! 


CHAPTEK    V. 

AIM    OF    THE    EMPEROB. 

European  association.—  Liberty  in  Fr&nee. 


the  fortune  of  arms  had  rendered  Napo- 
leon master  of  the  greater  part  of  the  continent, 
he  desired  to  use  his  conquests  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  European  confederation.1 
^  Prompt  to  apprehend  the  tendency  of  civilisa- 
tion, the  Emperor  hastened  its  march  by  executing, 
without  delay,  that  which  otherwise  had  been  en- 
folded in  the  distant  decrees  of  Providence.  His 
genius  foresaw  that  the  rivalry  which  separates 

1  He  caused  the  supplementary  act  to  be  preceded  by  the 
following  remarkable  words  :  "  I  intended,"  said  he,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  past,  "  to  organize  a  great  federative  European  sys- 
'  tern,  which  I  had  conceived  as  conformable  to  the  spirit  of 
'  the  age,  and  favorable  to  the  progress  of  civilisation.  In 
1  order  to  be  able  to  complete  it,  and  give  it  all  the  breadth 
'  and  stability  of  which  it  was  susceptible,  I  adjourned  the  es- 
'  tablishment  of  several  internal  institutions  more  especially 
'  designed  to  protect  the  liberty  of  citizens." 


ATM   OF  THE  EMPEEOE.  137 

the  different  nations  of  Europe,  would  disappear 
before  a  general  interest  well  understood. 

The  more  the  world  improves  itself,  the  more 
are  the  barriers  which  separate  men  lowered,  and 
the  greater  is  the  number  of  countries  which  re- 
ciprocal interests  tend  to  unite. 

In  the  infancy  of  society,  the  state  of  nature 
existed  between  man  and  man ;  then  a  common 
interest  united  a  small  number  of  individuals  who 
surrendered  some  of  their  natural  rights  in  order 
that  society  might  guaranty  to  them  complete 
enjoyment  of  the  rest.  Then  was  formed  the 
tribe,  an  association  of  men  among  whom  the 
state  of  nature  disappeared,  and  law  took  the  place 
of  the  right  of  the  strongest.  The  greater  the 
progress  of  civilisation,  on  a  correspondingly  more 
extensive  Scale  was  this  transformation  effected. 
Men  fought  at  first  from  gate  to  gate,  from  hill  to 
hill ;  then  the  spirit  of  conquest  and  the  spirit  of 
defence  gave  rise  to  cities,  provinces,  states ;  and 
a  common  danger  having  united  a  large  number  of 
these  territorial  fractions,  nations  were  formed. 
Then  the  national  interests  having  embraced  all  the 
local  and  provincial  interests,  wars  were  carried  on 
only  between  people  and  people  ;  and  each  people, 
in  its  turn,  made  a  triumphal  march  over  the  terri- 
tory of  its  neighbor,  when  it  was  led  by  a  great 
man,  and  attended  by  a  great  principle.  The  com- 
mune, the  city,  and  the  province,  have  thus,  one 


138  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

after  the  other,  enlarged  their  social  sphere,  and 
extended  the  limits  of  the  circle,  outside  of  which 
the  state  of  nature  exists.  This  transformation 
stopped  at  the  frontier  of  each  country ;  and  it  is 
still  force,  not  right,  which  decides  the  lot  of  na- 
tions. 

To  replace  among  the  nations  of  Europe  the 
state  of  nature  by  the  social  state, — such  was  the 
idea  of  the  Emperor ;  all  his  political  combinations 
tended  to  this  great  end ;  but  it  was  necessary,  in 
order  to  reach  it,  to  bring  England  and  Russia  to 
a  frank  concurrence  in  his  views. 

"  Every  war  in  Europe,"  said  Napoleon,  "  is  a 
"  civil  war.  The  Holy  Alliance  is  an  idea  stolen 
"  from  me."  That  is  to  say,  a  holy  alliance  of  the 
nations  through  their  kings,  and  not  of  the  kings 
against  the  nations.  In  this  consists  the  immeas- 
urable difference  between  his  idea,  and  the  man- 
ner in  which  it  was  realized.  Napoleon  had  dis- 
placed the  sovereigns  for  the  temporary  interests 
of  the  nations ;  in  1816,  the  nations  were  dis- 
placed for  the  particular  interests  of  the  sover- 
eigns. The  statesmen  of  that  epoch,  consulting 
only  hatreds  and  passions,  founded  European  equi- 
librium upon  the  rivalry  of  the  great  powers,  in- 
stead of  settling  it  upon  general  mutual  inter- 
ests. So  their  system  has  crumbled  to  ruins  in  all 
its  parts. 

The  policy  of  the  Emperor,  on  the  contrary, 


s 

AIM   OF  THE  EMPEEOK.  139 

J» 

consisted  in  founding  a  solid  European  association, 
by  causing  his  system  to  rest  upon  complete  na- 
tionalities, and  upon  general  interests  fairly  satis- 
fied. If  fortune  had  not  deserted  him,  he  would 
have  held  in  his  hands  all  the  means  necessary  for 
the  new  constitution  of  Europe :  he  had  kept  in 
reserve  whole  countries,  of  which  he  could  dispose 
in  order  to  attain  his  end.  Dutch,  Romans,  Pied- 
montese,  inhabitants  of  Bremen  and  of  Hamburg, 
all  of  you  who  have  been  astonished  to  find  your- 
selves Frenchmen,  you  will  return  to  the  atmos- 
phere of  nationality  which  suits  your  antecedents 
and  your  position;  and  France,  in  surrendering 
the  rights  which  victory  gave  her  over  you,  still 
acts  for  her  own  proper  interests ;  for  her  interests 
can  never  be  separated  from  those  of  civilized  na- 
tions. In  order  to  cement  the  European  associa- 
tion, the  Emperor,  to  use  his  own  words,  would 
have  caused  to  be  adopted  a  European  code,  and  a 
European  court  of  cassation,  to  correct  all  errors,  as 
the  Court  of  Cassation  in  France  corrects  the  errors 
of  French  tribunals.  He  would  have  founded  a 
European  Institute  to  animate,  direct,  and  unite 
all  the  learned  associations  of  Europe.1  Uniform- 
ity of  coins  and  money,  weights  and  measures,  and 
uniformity  in  legislation,  would  have  been  secured 
by  his  powerful  intervention. 

1  The  Emperor  had  already  commenced  this  branch  "of  Eu- 
ropean association  for  the  sciences,  by  offering  European  prizes 


NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

Thus  would  have  been  accomplished  the  last 
grand  transformation  for  our  continent ;  and  as  com- 
munal interests  had  risen  superior  to  individual  in- 
terests, and  then  interests  of  cities  to  communal 
interests,  and  interests  of  provinces  to  interests  of 
cities,  and  finally,  national  interests  to  interests  of 
provinces ;  so,  on  precisely  the  same  principle,  Eu- 
ropean interests  would  have  ruled  over  national 
interests — and  humanity  would  have  been  satisfied; 
for  Providence  could  not  have  intended  that  one 
nation  should  be  happy  only  at  the  expense  of 
others,  that  there  should  be  in  Europe  only  victors 
and  vanquished,  and  not  the  reconciled  and  harmo- 
nious members  of  one  great  family. 

Napoleonic  Europe  once  founded,  the  Emperor 
would  have  proceeded  hi  France  to  the  establish- 
ment of  his  institutions  of  peace.  He  would  have 
consolidated  liberty ;  he  had  only  to  let  loose  the 
cords  of  the  net-work  he  had  prepared. 

The  government  of  Napoleon,  better  than  any 

for  new  discoveries  or  inventions.  Notwithstanding  the  exist- 
ence of  war,  Davy,  of  London,  and  Hermann,  of  Berlin,  won 
prizes  offered  by  the  Institute. 

In  the  same  idea  of  European  confraternity,  the  Emperor 
caused  to  be  declared  by  a  senatus-consultum,  of  the  21st 
February,  1808,  that  those  who  had  rendered  or  should  render 
important  services  to  the  state,  or  who  should  introduce 
inventions,  or  useful  industries,  or  should  form  great  estab- 
lishments, might  after  one  year  of  residence  be  admitted  to 
enjoy  the  rights  of  French  citizenship,  which  rights  should  be 
conferred  upon  them  by  a  decree. 


AIM    OF    THE  E3IPEBOE.  141 

other,  could  have  sustained  liberty,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  liberty  would  have  strengthened  his 
throne,  though  it  overthrows  such  thrones  as  have 
not  a  solid  foundation. 

Liberty  would  have  fortified  his  power,  be- 
cause Napoleon  had  established  in  France  all  that 
ought  to  precede  liberty ; l  because  his  power  re- 
posed upon  the  whole  mass  of  the  nation ;  because 
his  interests  were  the  same  as  those  of  the  people ; 
because,  finally,  the  most  perfect  confidence  reigned 
between  the  ruler  and  the  governed. 

In  fact,  without  identical  interests,  without  ab- 
solute confidence,  no  authority  is  possible;  how- 
ever well  a  government  may  act,  or  intend  to  act, 
it  is  doomed  to  perish  if  evil  intents  are  attributed 
to  all  its  acts.  "  One  of  the  indispensable  qualities 
"  of  a  government,"  says  M.  Thiers,"  "  is  to  have 
"  that  good  reputation  which  defends  it  from  in- 
justice. When  it  has  lost  that,  and  every  thing 
" — even  the  wrongs  of  others  and  of  fortune — 
"  is  imputed  as  a  crime,  there  remains  no  longer 
"  the  faculty  of  governing,  and  this  lack  of  author- 
"  ity  should  condemn  it — to  retire." 

In  England,  in  1687,  the  want  of  confidence  of 
the  people  towards  the  sovereign  led  to  fatal  con- 
sequences. The  king,  James  II.,  published,  of  his 
own  authority,  a  declaration  of  liberty  of  con- 

1  See  the  commencement  of  the  third  chapter,  page  34. 
4  History  of  the  Revolution. 


142  NAPOLEONIC  IDEAS. 

science  for  all  his  subjects;  but  the  nation  dis- 
trusted the  intention  of  the  sovereign,  and  think- 
ing that  he  desired  by  the  declaration  to  favor 
the  triumph  of  Catholicism  felt  indignant  at  an  act 
which  it  suspected  of  duplicity,  although  the  prin- 
ciple involved  was  just  and  generous. 

To  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  on  the  contrary, 
possessing  the  confidence  of  the  people,  ah1  was 
easy.  He  had  at  the  beginning  surmounted  the 
greatest  difficulty  and  laid  the  principal  founda- 
tions of  a  solid  establishment,  by  reconciling 
among  themselves  all  the  members  of  the  French 
family.  All  agreed  as  to  the  fundamental  basis 
of  the  constitution.  The  interests  of  the  majority 
were  mingled  to  such  a  degree  with  those  of  his 
dynasty,  that  in  1811,  on  the  very  spot  where,  a 
few  years  before,  implacable  hatred  to  royalty  had 
been  sworn,  all  Paris  and  all  France  were  seen  to 
salute  with  their  acclamations  the  birth  of  a  child, 
because  that  child  appeared  to  be  a  pledge  of  the 
duration  and  stability  of  the  imperial  government. 

Beloved  especially  by  the  people,  could  Napo- 
leon fear  to  grant  political  rights  to  all  the  citi- 
zens? After  being  chosen  consul  for  life,  he  re- 
established the  principle  of  the  right  of  elec- 
tion, and  used  these  significant  words :  "  For  the 
"  sake  of  the  stability  of  the  government,  it  is  ne- 
"  cessary  that  the  people  should  have  a  share  in 
"  the  elections !  "  Thus  already  in  1803,  Napoleon 


AIM   OP  THE    EMPEKOB.  143 

foresaw  that  liberty  would  fortify  his  power.  His 
wannest  partisans  being  among  the  people,  the 
more  he  lowered  the  electoral  qualification,  the 
better  chances  had  his  natural  friends  of  arriving 
at  the  legislative  assembly ;  the  more  power  he 
gave  to  the  masses,  the  more  he  strengthened  his 
own. 

Nor  would  liberty  of  discussion  in  the  Cham- 
bers have  endangered  the  imperial  government; 
for,  all  being  agreed  upon  the  fundamental  ques- 
tions, an  opposition  would  only  have  had  the  effect 
of  giving  birth  to  a  noble  emulation,  and  instead 
of  expending  its  energies  in  attempting  the  over- 
throw of  government,  it  would  have  confined  its 
efforts  to  endeavoring  to  improve  it. 

Finally,  the  liberty  of  the  press  would  have 
served  only  to  exhibit  in  better  light  the  grandeur 
of  the  plans  of  Napoleon,  to  proclaim  the  benefits 
attending  his  reign.  As  General,  Consul,  Em- 
peror, having  done  every  thing  for  the  people, 
would  he  have  feared  being  reproached  with  mak- 
ing conquests  which  had  resulted  in  the  prosperity 
and  glory  of  France,  and  in  the  peace  of  the 
world  ?  Would  he  have  feared  that  a  more  bril- 
liant glory  would  have  been  contrasted  with  his 
own?  No,  a  government  glorious  with  laurels 
both  civil  and  military,  could  not  have  feared  the 
light !  The  more  moral  power  an  authority  has, 
the  less  necessity  does  it  feel  to  employ  material 


144  NAPOLEONIC    IDEAS. 

force ;  and  the  more  power  public  opinion  confers 
upon  it,  the  better  able  it  is  to  dispense  with 
using  it. 

Let  us  repeat,  then:  identity  of  interests  of 
the  sovereign  and  of  the  people,  is  the  essential 
foundation  of  a  dynasty.  A  government  is  firm- 
ly and  immovably  seated  when  it  can  say  to 
itself:  That  which  will  be  for  the  advantage  of 
the  greatest  number,  that  which  will  secure  the 
liberty  of  the  citizen  and  the  prosperity  of  the 
country,  will  constitute  the  force  of  my  authority, 
and  will  consolidate  my  power.  But  when  a  gov- 
ernment finds  partisans  only  in  a  single  class,  when 
liberty  furnishes  arms  only  to  its  enemies,  how  can 
one  hope  that  it  will  enlarge  the  system  of  elec- 
tion, that  it  will  favor  liberty?  Can  a  govern- 
ment be  expected  to  commit  suicide  ? 

Thus,  under  Napoleon,  a  normal  state  was 
arrived  at  without  shocks  and  without  troubles, — 
a  state  in  which  liberty  would  have  been  the  sup- 
port of  power,  the  guaranty  of  public  welfare,  in- 
stead of  being  a  weapon  of  war,  and  a  torch  of  dis- 
cord. 

It  is  with  an  impression  similar  to  that  which 
follows  an  intoxicated  dream,  that  one  dwells  upon 
the  picture  of  happiness  and  stability  that  Europe 
would  have  presented,  if  the  comprehensive  plans 
of  the  Emperor  had  been  realized.  Each  country, 
limited  by  its  natural  boundaries,  united  to  its 


ATM    OP   THE    EMPEROR.  145 

neighbors  by  relations  of  interest  and  friendship, 
would  have  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  independence, 
of  peace,  and  of  liberty ;  and  sovereigns,  free  from 
fear  and  suspicion,  would  have  applied  themselves 
to  improving  the  condition  of  their  people,  and  to 
introducing  among  them  all  the  advantages  of 
civilisation ! 

Instead  of  that,  what  have  we  now  in  Europe  ? 
Every  one,  when  he  goes  to  sleep  at  night,  fears 
the  awakening  of  the  morning ;  for  the  germs  of 
evil  are  distributed  everywhere,  and  every  honest 
soul  dreads  even  blessings,  because  of  the  sacrifices 
which  must  be  made  to  obtain  them ! 

Friends  of  liberty,  who  have  rejoiced  at  the 
downfall  of  Napoleon,  your  error  has  been  fatal ! 
How  many  tedious  years  must  pass,  how  many 
struggles  and  sacrifices  must  be  gone  through  and 
suffered,  before  you  will  arrive  again  at  the  point 
to  which  Napoleon  had  advanced  you ! 

And  you,  statesmen  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna, 
who  have  been  masters  of  the  world,  while  stand- 
ing upon  the  ruins  of  the  Empire — you  might  have 
played  a  splendid  part,  but  you  did  not  compre- 
hend it !  You  have  aroused  the  people  in  the 
name  of  liberty,  and  even  of  license,  against  Napo- 
leon ;  you  have  put  him  under  the  ban  of  Europe 
as  a  despot  and  a  tyrant ;  you  claim  to  have  de  • 
livered  the  nations  and  assured  their  repose.  They 
for  a  moment  have  believed  you  ;  but  nothing  solid 
7 


146  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

and  permanent  can  be  built  upon  falsehood  and 
error.  Napoleon  had  closed  the  gulf  of  revolu- 
tions ;  you,  overthrowing  him,  have  reopened  it. 
Take  care  that  the  gulf  does  not  swallow  you  up ! 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CAUSE  OF  THE  FALL  OF  THE  EMPEROE. 

WE  have  exhibited  in  the  preceding  chapters 
all  the  chances  of  duration  which  the  imperial  cre- 
ations possessed.  But,  will  it  be  said  the  edifice 
of  the  interior,  which  you  deemed  so  solid  and  firm, 
has  been  overturned  ?  that  foreign  policy  which 
you  consider  so  profound  has  proved  the  cause  of 
his  ruin  ? 

We  reply :  The  edifice  of  the  interior  was 
solid  and  firm;  for  the  shock  which  overturned 
it  did  not  come  from  the  interior  :  as  for  the  sys- 
tem conceived  by  the  Emperor,  it  was  not  defini- 
tively established,  and  it  would  have  been  neces- 
sary to  put  it  into  operation  in  order  to  demonstrate 
its  strength. 

The  Emperor  fell,  because  he  completed  his 
work  too  hastily — because,  events  pressing  too  rap- 
idly, he  conquered  too  promptly.  Anticipating, 
by  his  genius,  both  time  and  men,  when  fortunate, 
he  was  regarded  as  a  god ;  when  unfortunate, 


148  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

nothing  was  perceived  but  his  rashness.  Borne 
along  by  the  current  of  victory,  his  rapid  course 
could  not  be  followed  by  the  philosophers,  who, 
restricting  their  ideas  to  the  narrow  circle  of  the 
domestic  hearth,  on  account  of  a  gleam  of  liberty, 
aided  in  quenching  the  very  fire  of  civilisation. 

At  the  same  time  foreign  nations,  impatient 
of  the  temporary  evils  of  war,  forgot  the  benefits 
which  Napoleon  brought  them,  and  on  account  of 
a  transient  ill,  rejected  a  whole  future  of  independ- 
ence. It  was  not  within  the  power  of  even  the 
greatest  genius  of  modern  times,  in  so  few  years 
to  destroy  in  foreign  countries  all  prejudices  and 
convince  all  consciences. 

France  had  become  too  great,  in  consequence 
of  the  Revolution,  not  to  awaken  rivalries  and 
hatreds ;  in  order  to  appease  them,  it  would  have 
been  necessary  to  descend  in  the  scale  from  the 
time  of  the  commencement  of  the  Empire.  But 
these  very  rivalries  caused  Napoleon  to  mount  to 
the  climax  of.  his  power ;  when  afterwards  he  was 
obliged  to  descend,  he  could  not  stop  in  his  down- 
ward course. 

Time  not  having  cemented  his  alliances,  or  ef- 
faced the  memory  of  too  recent  enmities,  his  allies, 
upon  the  first  check,  turned  against  him.  De- 
ceived in  his  expectations,  the  Emperor  refused  to 
accept  propositions  which  he  did  not  think  sincere  ; 
the  enemy,  on  their  side,  seeing  Napoleon  always 


PALL   OF   THE   EMPEROR.  149 

more  haughty  after  a  defeat,  thought  that  he  never 
would  consent  to  a  definitive  peace. 

Napoleon's  plans  were  constantly  enlarged  in 
proportion  with  the  elements  which  he  had  at  his 
disposition,  and  he  fell  because  he  desired  to  ac- 
complish in  ten  years  a  work  which  would  have 
required  several  generations: 

Not  then  in  consequence  of  impotence  did  the 
Emperor  succumb,  but  hi  consequence  of  exhaus- 
tion. And  in  spite  of  his  terrible  reverses  and  in- 
numerable calamities,  the  French  people  always 
supported  him  by  their  suffrages,  sustained  him  by 
their  efforts,  and  encouraged  him  by  their  attach- 
ment. 

It  is  a  consolation  to  those  who  feel  the  blood 
of »  great  man  flowing  through  their  veins,  to  think 
of  the  regrets  which  accompanied  his  removal.  It 
is  a  great  and  proud  thought  that  it  required  all 
the  efforts  of  allied  Europe  to  tear  Napoleon  from 
France,  which  he  had  rendered  so  glorious.  It 
was  not  the  French  people,  in  their  wrath,  who 
overturned  his  throne ;  it  required  twice  twelve 
hundred  thousand  foreign  swords  to  break  his 
imperial  sceptre ! 

Full  of  beauty  and  honor  are  the  obsequies  of 
the  sovereign,  whom  a  nation  in  tears,  and  glory 
clothed  in  mourning,  accompany  to  his  last  resting- 
place  ! 


CHAPTER    VII. 

CONCLUSION. 

THE  period  of  the  Empire  was  a  war  of  life  and 
death,  waged  by  England  against  France.  Eng- 
land triumphed ;  but,  thanks  to  the  creative  ge- 
nius of  Napoleon,  France,  although  vanquished,  has 
lost,  substantially,  less  than  England.  The  finances 
of  France  are  still  the  most  prosperous  in  Europe  ; 
England  bends  under  the  weight  of  debt.  The 
impulse  given  to  industry  and  to  commerce  has 
not  been  stopped  in  spite  of  our  reverses ;  and  at 
this  time  the  European  continent  supplies  itself 
with  the  greater  part  of  the  products  Avhich  Eng- 
land formerly  supplied. 

Now,  we  ask,  who  are  the  greatest  statesmen, 
those  who  have  ruled  over  countries  which  have 
gained,  in  spite  of  defeat,  or  those  who  have 
governed  countries  which  have  lost,  in  spite  of 
victory  ? 

The  period  of  the  Empire  was  a  war  of  life  and 
death  against  the  old  European  system.  The  old 


CONCLUSION.  151 

system  has  triumphed ;  but  in  spite  of  the  fall  of 
Napoleon,  the  Napoleonic  Ideas  have  germinated 
everywhere.  The  victors  have  even  adopted  the 
ideas  of  the  vanquished,  and  the  people  consume 
themselves  in  efforts  to  rebuild  what  Napoleon 
had  established  among  them. 

In  France  the  realisation  of  the  ideas  of  the 
Emperor,  under  other  names  or  other  forms,  is 
demanded  without  cessation.  If  a  great  measure 
or  a  great  work  is  put  in  execution,  it  is  generally 
a  project  of  Napoleon,  which  is  proceeded  with  or 
tinished.  Every  act^  of  power,  every  proposition 
of  the  Chambers,  places  itself  under  the  aegis  of 
Napoleon,  in  order  to  secure  popularity ;  and  upon 
a  word  fallen  from  his  lips,  a  whole  system  is 
built. 

Italy  and  Poland  have  endeavored  to  recover 
the  national  organisation  which  Napoleon  had  given 
them. 

Spain  sheds  profusely  the  blood  of  her  children, 

in  order  to  re-establish  the  institutions  which  the 

• 

consultum  of  Bayonne,  in  1808,  guarantied.  The 
troubles  which  agitate  her  are  but  the  reaction 
which  spontaneously  arises  against  resistance  to 
the  ideas  of  the  Emperor. 

At  London,  also,  a  reaction  has  taken  place, 
and  the  major-general  of  the  French  army  at 
"Waterloo  has  been  feted  by  the  English  people 
like  a  conqueror. 


152  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

Belgium,  in  1830,  manifested  distinctly  her 
desire  to  become  again  what  she  was  under  the 
Empire. 

Several  countries  of  Germany  ask  urgently  for 
the  laws  which  Napoleon  gave  them. 

The  Swiss  cantons  unanimously  prefer  the  act 
of  mediation  of  1803  to  the  compact  which  unites 
them. 

Finally,  we  have  seen  even  in  a  democratic 
republic  (Berne),  those  districts  which  formerly 
belonged  to  France,  demand  in  1838,  from  the 
government  of  Berne,  the  imperial  laws,  of  which 
their  incorporation  with  that  republic  had  deprived 
them  since  1815. 

Let  us  then  ask  again,  who  are  the  greatest 
statesmen,  those  who  found  a  system  which  crum- 
bles in  spite  of  their  all-sufficient  power,  or  those 
who  found  a  system  which  survives  their  defeat, 
and  rises  from  its  ruins  ? 

The  Napoleonic  Ideas  have  then  the  character 
of  ideas  which  control  the  movemenj  of  society, 
since  they  advance  by  their  own  force,  although 
deprived  of  their  author ;  like  a  body  which, 
launched  into  space,  arrives  by  its  own  momentum 
and  weight  at  the  end  designed. 

There  is  no  longer  any  necessity  to  reconstruct 
the  system  of  the  Emperor  ;  it  will  reconstruct  it- 
self. Sovereigns  and  nations  will  concur  in  re- 


CONCLUSION.  153 

establishing  it ;  because  each  one  will  see  in  it  a 
guaranty  of  order,  of  peace,  and  of  prosperity. 

Besides,  where  can  we  find,  at  this  day,  the  ex- 
traordinary man  who  can  command  the  attention 
of  the  world  by  the  respect  due  to  the  superiority 
of  his  conceptions  and  ideas  ? 

The  genius  of  our  epoch  has  need  only  of  simple 
reason.  Thirty  years  ago  it  was  necessary  to  fore- 
see and  prepare  ;  now  it  is  a  question  only  of  cor- 
rect appreciation,  and  of  careful  collection  and  ar- 
rangement. 

"  In  contemporary,  as  in  historical  facts,"  Na- 
poleon has  said,  "  lessons  may  be  found,  but  rarely 
"models."  It  is  impossible  to  copy  that  which 
has  been  done,  because  imitations  do  not  always 
produce  resemblances. 

In  fact,  to  copy  in  the  details,  instead  of  copy- 
ing in  the  spirit,  a  past  government,  would  be  to 
act  like  a  general,  who,  finding  himself  upon  the 
same  field  of  battle  where  Napoleon  or  Frederic 
had  conquered,  should  undertake  to  secure  victory 
by  repeating  the  same  manoeuvres. 

In  reading  the  history  of  nations,  as  the  history 
of  battles,  it  is  necessary  to  draw  general  princi- 
ples, without  confining  one's  self  to  follow  servilely, 
step  by  step,  vestiges  which  are  imprinted,  not 
upon  sand,  but  upon  a  more  elevated  ground — the 
interests  of  humanity. 

In  conclusion,  let  us  repeat  it,  the  Napoleonic       -"'2** 


154  NAPOLEONIC   IDEAS. 

Idea  is  not  one  of  war,  but  a  social,  industrial,  com- 
mercial idea,  and  one  which  concerns  all  mankind. 
If  to  some  it  appears  always  surrounded  by  the 
thunder  of  combats,  that  is  because  it  was  in 
fact  for  too  long  a  time  veiled  by  the  smoke  of 
cannon  and  the  dust  of  battles.  But  now  the 
clouds  are  dispersed,  and  we  can  see,  beyond  the 
glory  of  arms,  a  civil  glory  greater  and  more  en- 
duririg. 

May  the  shade  of  the  Emperor  repose,  then,  in 
peace!  His  memory  grows  greater  every  day. 
Every  surge  that  breaks  upon  the  rock  of  Saint 
Helena,  responding  to  a  whisper  of  Europe,  brings 
a  homage  to  his  memory,  a  regret  to  his  ashes, 
and  the  echo  of  Longwood  repeats  over  his  tomb : 

"THE      ENFRANCHIZED      NATIONS      AKE       OCCUPIED     i 
"  EVERYWHERE   IN  RE-ESTABLISHING  THY   WORK  !  "      f 


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